A southern California real estate investment powerhouse is spreading its roots in the birthplace of San Diego’s biotech market with a $164 million, amenity-rich life science campus known as, “The Boardwalk,” on Science Center Drive.

When completed, The Boardwalk will include three buildings with more than 195,000 square feet of office and lab space. And its amenities — a one-acre park, fitness facilities with spa-style locker rooms, a full-service restaurant, an expansive conference center and a plethora of outdoor collaboration spaces — are intended by the developer to be second to none in the high-priced region.

The Torrey Pines project at 10265, 10275 and 10285 Science Center Drive is scheduled to break ground next week and is meant as a flagship venue for Irvine-based Healthpeak Properties, which already operates around 2 million square feet of life science office space in San Diego. The publicly traded real estate investment trust, whose stock is valued at $17 billion, operates a portfolio of 740 properties. It specializes in life science, senior housing and medical properties.

“The timing was just right,” said Richard Danesi, an executive with commercial real estate brokerage CBRE who is helping to lease the property. “Record level venture capital is driving strong leasing activity in the market with very low vacancy rates.”


All-time high asking rental rates in the market — $4.76 per square foot for Class A lab space — were also a catalyst for the project, he said.

Life science campus will include a plethora of outdoor attractions, including conference-ready meeting nodes. (Courtesy of CBRE)

The Boardwalk, located just west of Interstate 5 and north of Genesse Avenue, combines three of Healthpeak’s existing holdings and will see the development of two new buildings and the redevelopment of another. The idea is to recruit a major biotech tenant to take over the entire campus or secure a single tenant for each of the three buildings, Danesi said. However, no tenants have committed to the project.

Beyond the project’s best-in-class lab space and top-notch amenities, its owners hope the address alone will serve as a calling card.


“The original San Diego biotech market started on Science Center Drive,” Danesi said. “It’s a great, great location.”

Healthpeak anticipates that a portion of The Boardwalk project will be ready for tenant move in March or April of next year.