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Spur Capital Partners wants to build an eight-building, 900K SF life sciences development at 640 Gilman St. in Berkeley, California, which would require a significant rezoning. Rhoades Planning Group submitted a rezoning application on behalf of Spur Capital.
The application seeks to rezone 15 parcels, as reported by the San Francisco Business Times. A planning application has not yet been submitted, but the project, currently titled Gilman Gateway, would span close to four city blocks across several different addresses.
“These are spaces we hope are going to accommodate the vast array of incredible startups that are coming off of the Cal campus, in particular, and don’t have places to grow and expand,” Rhoades Planning Group founder Mark Rhoades said in comments to the San Francisco Business Times.
“And these are industrial jobs — jobs that, unlike dot-com, have a higher level of workforce that does not need college degrees.”
The Berkeley City Council voted last September on the Keep Innovation in Berkeley Initiative, which aims to streamline the city’s zoning codes to cater to lab and research development in the city. The initiative still has to go in front of the city’s planning commission for further consideration.
Life sciences demand has stayed steady in the East Bay, with new construction coming online. A CBRE report in Q3 of last year noted the segment’s vacancy rate in the East Bay rose to 7.4%.
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