LIFE SCIENCE PROJECT ADVANCES BioMed's Towne Center View project
San Diego planning panel sends BioMed’s Towne Center View development to City Council; plans call for five all-new buildings on hilltop in University City
Life science real estate developer BioMed Realty is close to securing the permits necessary to build a 1-million-square-foot research campus called Towne Center View on 33.5 acres of partially developed land in University City.
Thursday, San Diego Planning Commissioners voted unanimously in favor of advancing the project and its accompanying environmental impact report to the City Council. The action tees up approval of a rare mega development, in the works for more than two years, in the heart of San Diego’s research cluster.
“San Diego is our home, and it has been gratifying to work with our neighbors, community and stakeholders to bring this project forward with the goal of providing additional high-quality spaces that serve the needs of San Diego’s life sciences and technology sectors,” a BioMed spokesperson said in a statement to the Union-Tribune. “Towne Center View has been thoughtfully designed with spectacular architecture and native landscaping that respects its unique location, and incorporates environmental stewardship and climate action values of BioMed Realty and our community.”
Located north of Towne Centre Drive’s current terminus, Towne Center View calls for five all-new buildings offering 1 million squarefeet of space for roughly 3,000 workers in structures that are two to six stories tall. The project site is perched atop a hilltop that is already more than 330 feet above sea level, meaning workers will enjoy sweeping views from inside and outside buildings.
Towne Center View also features 2,500 parking spaces, cafes, a market, a fitness center, sports fields and courts, rooftop terraces, conference spaces, walking trails, overlooks, bike parking and repair sta
tions, and seven acres of open space.
The project, which requires a community plan amendment and several other permits, will produce more than 2 million square feet of development when counting the square footage of balconies, rooftop decks and parking garages.
“I think it’s a great project. I think it’s beautifully designed,” Planning Commissioner Kelly Moden said.
Founded and headquartered in San Diego since 2004, BioMed Realty Trust specializes in building research and lab space for life science and biotech firms. The company owns and operates 16.4 million square feet of real estate spread across San Diego; the greater Boston area; San Francisco; Seattle; Boulder, Colo.; and Cambridge, U.K. It was acquired by Blackstone
in 2016 in a transaction valued at $8 billion when including debt.
Towne Center View boasts a nearly unrivaled location for ground-up, life science construction, taking advantage of a large plot of land in the space-constrained University City region that was graded years ago for a previously entitled, smaller project but left undeveloped.
BioMed, which declined to share its total project cost, purchased the 21.8-acre undeveloped, northern portion of the project site at the end of Towne Center Drive for $100 million in September 2022 from Cush Enterprises, public records show. The firm already owned the southern portion of the project site, which is developed with three buildings leased to Union Bank and genetic screening company Helix. The existing buildings will be demolished to accommodate Towne Center View.
Towne Center View’s design plays off the environmental landscape with sculptural building forms and transparent facades said to be inspired by the topography of the surrounding canyon. Buildings were also shaped and placed in locations meant to maximize views from a variety of vantage points, the developer said. Plus, a central courtyard with cafes and a market, as well as a northern terrace overlooking the recreation fields and canyon should draw people outside.
“Tenants are encouraged to work, and to play and to interact outdoors. This is a project where we’ve really given equal weight to the outdoor program as we have to the program inside the buildings,” Kelly Schnell, a project architect with Perkins and Will, told the
Planning Commission. “I just can’t emphasize enough how much consideration and appreciation of the context was really (BioMed’s) guiding light in this design process. We understand this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity.”
Although the project is located in an environmentally sensitive area with steep hillsides and animal habitats, the city of San Diego’s development services department determined in its environmental impact report that the project would only result in significant impacts to transportation. The analysis estimates that the project will result in 32.6 vehicle miles traveled per employee daily, which is greater than the regional mean of 25.9 miles per employee.
As such, BioMed is required to cut vehicle miles traveled by more than 32 percent to reduce the transportation impact to below a level of significance. The developer has agreed to implement a number of mitigation measures. It will charge for parking, as well as provide bike facilities, subsidized transit passes, carpool priority parking and an employee shuttle to the UTC transit station. BioMed will have to report its progress to the city annually, relying on trip count data and information from employee surveys to measure vehicle miles traveled. The firm will face fines if the reduction tactics aren’t working.
The developer declined to share information on its timeline. Construction will likely occur in phases over a more than five-year period, according to project materials.