UCSF has filled a cavity in its still-growing Mission Bay campus, dropping $767 million on a new home for its dentistry school.
The buy includes two buildings that add up to 470,000 square feet, plus a 600-space parking garage, according to Brian Newman, chief real estate officer at UCSF.
“It was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to buy two high-quality life science buildings adjacent to the UCSF Mission Bay campus,” he said via email.
The university purchased the buildings at 409 and 499 Illinois from long-time landlord Alexandria Properties. For more than a decade, the school’s clinics, labs, and administrative offices had leased space at 499 Illinois, where it currently occupies 90% of the building. As the main tenant, UCSF had an option to purchase the space, as well as neighboring 409 when it became vacant in 2024.
The school told its landlord it was going to exercise that option in March of this year and closed on Dec. 17.
The biotech facility at 409 Illinois St. that previously housed biopharmaceutical company FibroGen, genomics firm Illumina, and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub will become the new home of its dentistry school and will also house some of its dental clinics. It will get a “gut remodel,” while only minor work is needed at the other building, Newman said.
The newer facilities already meet UC seismic safety standards, meaning less time and investment is necessary for modernization. Even with the shortcut, construction on 409 Illinois is expected to take about three years and be ready for occupants in the first quarter of 2029.
In a press release, UCSF painted the deal as a “transformational upgrade” for the dentistry school. The current facilities on its Parnassus Campus in the Inner Sunset date to the 1950s, Newman said, and will be demolished after the school moves out. The university has not decided on a redevelopment plan and is currently not looking at additional acquisitions in Mission Bay.
The school surveyed sites near its Parnassus campus and in Mission Bay before deciding on the dentistry school’s new home. Two UCSF hospitals and a cancer center in the Mission Bay neighborhood will help with collaboration. The waterfront view doesn’t hurt either.
The new facility will include simulation and clinical skills labs and is a timely reminder of the importance of interdisciplinary work “when others are questioning the direction of higher education,” Catherine Lucey (opens in new tab), UCSF’s executive vice chancellor and provost said in a statement.
“It reflects our unwavering commitment to ensuring that our students and faculty have the high-quality space they need to learn, care for their patients, and advance discovery science,” she said.