CBRE Arranges $258.4 Million Sale and Leaseback of the 246,000 SF Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ Campus in San Diego County

CBRE has arranged the $258.4 million sale and leaseback of Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ Campus, a state-of-the-art life sciences and corporate headquarter campus in North County San Diego, to Oxford Properties Group.

CBRE’s Matthew Carlson, Hunter Rowe, Todd Tydlaska, and CBRE Boston Consulting team’s Anthony Hayes and Jared Pimm represented Ionis, a biotechnology company that specializes in discovering and developing RNA-targeted therapeutics. CBRE’s Debt & Structured Finance team’s James Millon and Zack Holderman provided financing for Oxford. CBRE’S Roger Carlson assisted the sales process with his North County leasing expertise.

The self-contained and fully amenitized campus is located on approximately 18 acres at 2850, 2855 and 2859 Gazelle Court. Originally developed as a build-to-suit for Ionis in 2011, the existing campus now consists of nearly 250,000 sq. ft. of office, lab, research and development and conference center spaces. On-site amenities include a 5,600 sq. ft. fitness center, a full-size basketball and volleyball court and vehicle charging stations.

The transaction initiates a long-term partnership, as Ionis will leaseback the existing campus for 15 years and has committed to a 165,000 sq. ft. build-to-suit. Oxford is under contract to acquire the eight-acre site across Whiptail Loop, where construction is estimated to commence early 2023 with completion scheduled for early 2025.

“The long-term leaseback with Oxford allows Ionis the ability to expand and direct their facilities while providing capital that can be invested into their robust scientific pipeline.” said CBRE’s Carlson.

The San Diego life science market is ranked third nationally behind Boston and Bay Area and consists of over 22.3 million sq. ft. of inventory. The region’s life sciences sector has experienced exponential growth over the past three years due to its mature ecosystem of talent, research institutes, infrastructure, inventory and capital funding.

“San Diego is a critical market for life sciences and groundbreaking innovation,” added CBRE’s Rowe. “There are very few largescale opportunities in today’s environment for capital to invest in the life sciences sector, particularly ones anchored by an established tenant with a robust late-stage pipeline, such as Ionis.”

“Ionis has long maintained a strong financial foundation to support our business objectives. While we have a healthy cash balance, we also have near-term capital needs to scale our organization to deliver on our growth initiatives. This transaction will provide us with significant cash proceeds while allowing us to conduct our day-to-day operations as we normally do,” said Elizabeth L. Hougen, Ionis’ executive vice president and chief financial officer.