BOTHELL – A company that owns and develops laboratory and office space for biotechnology companies has purchased the headquarters building of Nastech Pharmaceutical Co.
The $16.2 million Bothell acquisition is one of five that BioMed Realty Trust Inc. of San Diego recently completed along the West Coast.
“Seattle, Bothell included, is a terrific market for us,” said John Wilson, the chief financial officer at BioMed.
The 51,000-square-foot, two-story building at 3450 Monte Villa Parkway is south of the Canyon Park area. It was built in 1996 and renovated two years ago. The previous owner was a private partnership.
Nastech has occupied about two-thirds of the building since its move here from New York, two years ago.
But the company, which is developing nasally inhaled pharmaceutical drugs, is now expanding into the rest of the space, Wilson said.
In Seattle, BioMed paid Sabey Corp. $53 million for a five-story office building and adjacent property on Elliott Avenue W. At the same time, BioMed bought properties near San Francisco and San Diego.
Wilson said the buying binge was financed by proceeds from the company’s initial public stock offering in early August.
Formed in 1998, BioMed has been focused on properties used by San Diego’s booming biotech industry. Now the firm is looking to grow in a number of U.S. cities with established biotech and scientific research clusters.
Investing in biotech and scientific laboratory and office space has been a better bet than owning traditional office space, Wilson said.
“Lab space always has had a (lower) vacancy rate,” he said, adding that he believes it will get even better as the economy improves.
In the Puget Sound area, Colliers International estimated that less than 3 percent of lab space was empty as of June. That compares to a vacancy rate for office space that has hovered around 16 percent across the region, and closer to 20 percent in Snohomish County.
“Traditionally, lab space always has been tight in Seattle,” said Matt Christian, a vice president with Colliers in Seattle.
Though Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen hopes to build a significant amount of biotech space along south Lake Union, that space will only be built as it’s leased, Christian said. That means the market is likely to stay competitive.
BioMed isn’t the first to recognize the potential of serving the space needs of the region’s biotech companies. There are other large landlords of biotech space in Bothell, and some firms have begun specializing in the design or construction of lab space. Seattle’s Callison Architecture announced last week it has formed a team to provide biotech planning and design services.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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