Toronto-based real estate investor, developer, and manager Oxford Properties Group recently announced that construction had begun at Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ main life sciences campus in the greater San Diego area. The work underway represents an expansion of the property, which currently includes roughly 250,000 square feet of lab and office space in Carlsbad, Calif.
“The state-of-the-art facility being built by our partner Oxford Properties is more than a building,” said Elizabeth L. Hougen, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Ionis. “It’s a testament to Ionis’ enduring commitment to discovering, developing, and delivering novel medicines to patients who are living with serious diseases. In the same way that Ionis-discovered therapies like SPINRAZA® — the first-ever approved medicine to treat spinal muscular atrophy — and QALSODY™, the first treatment targeting a genetic form of ALS, changed the lives of people battling these devastating diseases, we expect the science done within the walls of this building to have a positive impact on the lives of people with unmet medical needs in the years to come.”
Ionis’ campus expansion is slated for completion in Q4 2025 and will add 165,000 square feet of purpose-built lab and complementary office space to the San Diego submarket. The additional capacity will take the property up to a total of more than 400,000 square feet across four buildings that feature chemistry labs, biology labs, and R&D support systems, in addition to modern office space.
Located at the intersection of Faraday Avenue and Whiptail Loop West, the property was purchased by Oxford from Ionis and then leased back to the pharmaceutical company in October 2022. Including local assets purchased in February 2022, this acquisition brought Oxford’s San Diego life sciences presence to roughly 900,000 square feet. Following the completion of the company’s current development pipeline, its portfolio in the market will surpass 1.3 million square feet. Elsewhere on the West Coast, Oxford’s life sciences holdings include high-quality assets in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.
“We are very pleased to build on our significant partnership with Ionis as we each write another chapter in our remarkable growth journeys through the expansion of their main campus,” said Tycho Suter, vice president of investments at Oxford. “Oxford is a long-term investor, committed to creating both economic and social value through real estate. Supporting the growth of a highly aligned partner in Ionis, who are deeply embedded in the Carlsbad community, delivers on both fronts as we help provide the infrastructure necessary to develop the life-saving therapeutics of tomorrow.”
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