Ascentris sells San Francisco Bay Area office, life sciences campus

Ascentris, a Denver-based real estate private equity firm, has sold The Waterfront at Harbor Bay, a six-building, 385,000-square-foot class A office and life sciences campus located in Alameda, Calif.

Ascentris, on behalf of one of its funds, acquired the campus in 2012 with several large tenants representing over 150,000 square feet expected to vacate the campus. After the acquisition, Ascentris executed a significant capital improvement plan that included upgrading the campus’ amenity offerings, including a new fitness center and yoga studio, electric vehicle charging stations, bocce ball court, and common area improvements throughout the campus and the café. Following the improvements, Ascentris reintroduced the property to the market and implemented an aggressive leasing strategy that targeted tenants looking for lower-cost options relative to other Bay Area submarkets, which boast some of the highest rents in the country. During its hold period, Ascentris executed approximately 500,000 square feet of new and renewal leasing, including a 170,000 square foot lease to Exelixis (NASDAQ: EXEL), a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company, that moved its headquarters from South San Francisco to The Waterfront at Harbor Bay.

“Ascentris and its investors are very pleased with the outcome of this investment,” said James Proffitt, Ascentris senior associate, who was responsible for executing the investment’s business plan. “The Waterfront is a great example of our target office acquisition profile. We identified an underperforming property in need of significant capital improvements located in a misunderstood submarket that had the potential of offering tenants a significant value proposition to other alternatives.”