An affiliate of Alexandria Real Estate just bought a 1.23 acre development site zoned for 300k SF at 500 Townsend. The life sciences landlord liked the fact it's at the intersection of its Mission Bay campus and SoMa because that opens the floodgates for collaboration with tech and recruiting prime talent. Earlier this year Alexandria CEO Joel Marcus (above) said he knew planting a flag years ago in Mission Bay—then a desolate land—was a gamble. Now the largest landlord there, Alexandria calls Bayer, Celgene, and Illumina tenants. (That goes to show you kids, be nice to every vacant field you see, because one day it may be the hottest office complex out there.)

Considered one of the highest-quality substantial development parcels in SoMa (at the corner of Townsend and Sixth), 500 Townsend sits next to major freeways and public transit. The timeline to develop the site is unclear at this point. Alexandria's 1M SF Mission Bay campus is now about 99.8% leased. This month Kidder Mathews SVP Mary Hines told us about a deal she just brokered for an Alexandria property in Mission Bay totaling 25k SF. She's tracking about 35 requirements for 1.3M SF in the marketplace from life sciences companies, which has increased a bit over the past few years.