Oxford Properties Group officially broke ground on a 165,000-square-foot expansion of Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ main life sciences campus in Carlsbad, California, which already features approximately 250,000 square feet of lab and office space. The expansion builds on Oxford and Ionis’ established partnership, with Oxford completing a purchase and long-term lease back of Ionis’ existing campus in October 2022.
Located at 2830 Whiptail Loop in Carlsbad and slated for completion by the end of 2025, Ionis’ campus expansion will deliver purpose-built lab and complementary office space. Bringing Ionis’ overall campus to over 400,000 square feet of space across four buildings, the buildings feature chemistry labs, biology labs and R&D support systems, as well as modern office space.
Oxford entered the San Diego life sciences market in February 2022 via a US$464 million acquisition of a 13-building portfolio. Oxford’s San Diego life sciences portfolio currently comprises more than 900,000 square feet, which will increase to over 1.3 million square feet upon completion of its development pipeline in market.
“We are very pleased to build on our significant partnership with Ionis, as we each write another chapter in our remarkable growth journeys through the expansion of their main campus,” said Tycho Suter, vice president, investments at Oxford. “Oxford is a long-term investor, committed to creating both economic and social value through real estate. Supporting the growth of a highly aligned partner in Ionis, who are deeply embedded in the Carlsbad community, delivers on both fronts as we help provide the infrastructure necessary to develop the life-saving therapeutics of tomorrow.”
Founded in 1989, Ionis is a publicly traded biotech company and a leader in discovering and developing RNA-targeted therapeutics. Ionis currently has four marketed medicines and a premier late-stage pipeline highlighted by industry-leading cardiovascular and neurological franchises. The campus expansion supports Ionis’ strategic goals of prioritizing its wholly owned pipeline and advancing its drug discovery technology.
“The state-of-the-art facility being built by our partner Oxford Properties is more than a building, it’s a testament to Ionis’ enduring commitment to discovering, developing and delivering novel medicines to patients who are living with serious diseases,” said Elizabeth L. Hougen, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Ionis. “In the same way that Ionis-discovered therapies like Spinraza, the first-ever approved medicine to treat spinal muscular atrophy, and Qalsody, the first treatment targeting a genetic form of ALS, changed the lives of people battling these devastating diseases, we expect the science done within the walls of this building to have a positive impact on the lives of people with unmet medical needs in the years to come.”
