Healthpeak Properties based in Irvine is building an $80 million life science campus in Torrey Pines – the company’s second ground-up construction project in Torrey Pines. With construction about to start, the building has already been fully leased to Turning Point Therapeutics.
Healthpeak is wrapping up construction on Boardwalk, a $164 million life science campus also in Torrey Pines that also was fully leased before it was finished, according to Michael Dorris, senior vice president and co-head of life science.
“It’s a very hot market, it’s a very strong market right now,” Dorris said. “We’re very bullish on the life science industry in the long term, for sure.”
The company also has plans to build a five-story, 163,000 square-foot life science building in Sorrento Mesa with details still to come.
Going Green
Callan Ridge is adjacent to the Torrey Pines Science Park owned by Healthpeak Properties and will share some of the amenities of the science park.
The Science Park has five buildings totaling more than 300,000 square feet.
“It’s a very unique wooded area with lots of grounds and we’ll have outdoor seating amenities, outdoor conference rooms and settings associated with the entire Torrey Pines Science Park,” Dorris said.
Healthpeak has owned the Callan Ridge site since 2007 but had to wait until leases in two existing building expired to redevelop the property, Dorris said.
The existing buildings will be razed to make room for the new project.
“They were two older buildings at the end of their useful life,” said Crista Swan, project manager of Project Management Advisors, which is overseeing the Callan Ridge project.
The new project will include one building of about 105,000 square feet and one building of about 80,000 square feet, Swan said.
The architect is Ferguson Pape Baldwin based in Kearny Mesa. The general contractor is BN Builders headquartered in Seattle with offices in Kearny Mesa.
The larger of the buildings will have a green roof consisting of trays full of a variety of plants covering about 27,000 square feet and a deck, Swan said. The green roof helps reduce the heat gain in the building.
There also will be a green wall in a breezeway between the buildings.
“It’s more for beautification,” Swan said.
The other building will have an array of photovoltaic panels capable of producing 70 kilowatts to 100 kilowatts of electricity.
Smart Windows
Construction of the shell of the Callan Ridge buildings should be finished by late 2022 and ready for Turning Point Therapeutics to move in during the first quarter of 2023, Dorris said.
Turning Point will finish the interior with the tenant improvements that meet its needs.
Callan Ridge is being built to LEED Gold standards.
Among other things, the project uses sustainable materials with recycled content, including porcelain tiles on the exterior, Swan said. Reclaimed water will be used wherever possible in the buildings.
The project also will have 26 electric vehicle charging stations, locker rooms, showers and designated space for bicycle storage, Swan said.
Inside, the buildings will have windows of smart glass that changes the amount of sunlight going into the building, depending on the time of day and amount of sunlight.
“It basically eliminates the need to have blinds over the windows. The glass will automatically tint over the course of the day based on the position of the sun and cloudiness of the sky to not only maintain light levels but also reduce glare,” Dorris said.
Swan compared the effect to wearing polarized sun glasses.
“When it’s bright and sunny and warm outside, the glazing automatically darkens and shades brightness and heat,” Swan said. “When it’s cool and cloudy outside, it lightens up the glass.”
The project takes advantage of the site topography, with the east side “built kind of into the hillside” then opening out with views of a canyon, Swan said.
“There’s kind of tiered levels that go from the west side to the east side,” she said.
A Challenge
In addition to the new buildings, the Callan Ridge project included redesigning the circulation around and through the new project and the existing Science Park, Swan said, adding that walking paths and bridges connect the two.
“It will feel like one big campus,” Swan said. “We’ve made a pretty big effort to try to keep and maintain the Torrey Pines that were planted there. That area is one of the nicest areas in Torrey Pines where you have the golf course (Torrey Pines Golf Course) on the west side of the campus.”
The COVID-19 pandemic brought a number of challenges to the project, most notably the rapidly rising costs of building supplies and finding people to do the work.
According to some estimates, steel prices have risen by 73% since November, rebar prices by 41% and lumber prices by 95%.
“We’ve had issues of trying to get enough subcontractors, which we haven’t seen before and this has been a very interesting project to get people to bid on,” Swan said. “When we started this whole process, we had a ton. It was just this last cycle, people were too busy. They wanted to. They just didn’t have the capacity to do it. They’re just busy.”
Project Management Advisors
Year founded: 1993
CEO and President: Roger McCarron
Headquarters: Chicago with offices in San Diego
Employees: 140+
Business: Real estate project management
Annual project volume: $1.8 billion average in the past three years
Notable: The company has grown 70% over the past five years and been named to Engineering News-Record top construction management fee-only firms for two years in a row.
Website: www.pmainc.com
Contact: 858-704-1980
Healthpeak Properties
Founded: 1985
CEO: Tom Herzog
Headquarters: Irvine
Business: Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)
Revenue: $2.1 billion 2020; $1.6 billion 2019
Employees: 204
Stock: PEAK on NYSE
Notable: Healthpeak Properties has more than $20 billion in real estate holdings in life science campuses, medical office buildings and senior housing
Website: https://ir.healthpeak.com/overview
Contact: 720-428-5400
