REIT Pushes Biotech in Pasadena

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REIT Pushes Biotech in Pasadena

By LAURENCE DARMIENTO

Staff Reporter

When David Rozzell was looking to expand his biotech startup after outgrowing a cramped 2,500-square-foot wet lab near Huntington Memorial Hospital he figured he might have to move out of pricey Pasadena.

But Rozzell’s BioCatalytics Inc. stayed in town after leasing 7,000 square feet of space on North Hill Avenue near Caltech. “There weren’t many other good options,” said Rozzell, whose company creates enzymes for drug production.

What the company found was a 27,000-square-foot center for emerging companies built by Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., a Real Estate Investment Trust specializing in developing and operating space for life science companies.

The REIT has nearly 100 properties in Seattle, the Boston area, the Mid Atlantic, Southeast and elsewhere in California, including San Diego. It now has two in Pasadena, which it considers prime real estate given the proximity of Caltech, JPL and the region’s other high-tech powerhouses, including UCLA and USC.

“Pasadena has a lot of attractive features. It’s a good city,” said Alexandria’s chief executive, Joel Marcus. “But the L.A. basin has had a hard time getting off the dime. Most of the companies that have formed (here) have left and gone to better places.”

Studies of the region’s biotech industry have noted several obstacles to growth, such as the region’s vast size and its lack of available land in desirable locales. In Pasadena, land is often too expensive for biotech startups.

The city has rezoned along South Fair Oaks Avenue near Huntington Hospital and Foothill Boulevard in East Pasadena to make it cheaper for high-tech businesses to locate there.

For its part, Alexandria claims it won’t be making money in the short term on its North Hill Avenue property, which it bought in 1999. Rather, it is hoping to fill it with growing businesses that might expand to a second, vacant 1 1/2 acre property Alexandria bought in 2000 in the South Fair Oaks specific plan area.

The company won’t disclose its leasing rates, but according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, BioCatalytics is paying $1.93 a square foot monthly for a combination of office and lab space at the center.

Last month, a second startup, Luxtera Inc., an optical device company spun off from Caltech, moved into the center. It took 8,300 square feet of space, leaving a little more than half the space leased.

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