South San Francisco, CA: Rico Cheung at Kidder Mathews represented Plexxikon in a lease for 55,602 square feet of office and laboratory space. The company is moving 65 employees to the new location to 329 Oyster Pt Blvd by summer 2021.

Challenge: Plexxikon, a developer of small molecule pharmaceuticals to treat human diseases, wanted to right size and upgrade their image after occupying their current space for 12+ years.  I began working with Plexxikon in early 2020 to identify a facility that was suitable for heavy chemistry R&D and they wanted to upgrade their image.

Action: We were close to signing a lease by mid-summer but needed to re-start due a requirement change and now faced a clock that was ticking very fast. I went back to the market to identify options with an existing lab in the preferred submarket. After identifying the perfect space, it became clear there were numerous hurdles that needed to be cleared before a lease could be signed.

Result: A process that typically takes 30-60 days just to negotiate a lease not to mention 3 to 5 months additionally to identify a space only took us 14 days. And it was completed over the holidays which added additional complexity to the transaction. The good news is, they move in 4 months before their current lease expires as this was the critical path in the transaction.  Additionally, I also saved them considerable capital on their build-out.

About Rico Cheung:

Rico Cheung joined Kidder Mathews’ Corporate Advisory Group in February 2008. He leads real estate strategy and implementation projects for startups to established companies. His goal is to assist his client to grow their business by providing greater choice and value in the Bay Area real estate market. Rico has over 25 years of experience in the life science real estate sector and in-depth market knowledge throughout the Bay Area. He has developed his clientele from serving life science, cleantech and technology companies and growing with his clients as they succeed in their business.

About Plexxikon:

Plexxikon was founded in 2001 by a team of biotech visionaries Joseph Schlessinger, Sung-Hou Kim, K. Peter Hirth, and Thomas R. Kassberg, with the goal of accelerating drug discovery with high throughput crystallography. By focusing on genetic mutations that drive disease proliferation, Plexxikon has earned a reputation as a leader in targeted drug discovery and translational, personalized medicine. With both drug discovery and early drug development conducted in-house, Plexxikon has: Invented Zelboraf® (partnered with Roche); Invented Turalio® (partnered with Daiichi Sankyo); Introduced 8 other drug candidates into clinical trials. In 2011, Plexxikon was acquired by the Daiichi Sankyo Group, and continues to build its diverse pipeline of personalized drugs. To learn more about Plexxikon visit https://www.plexxikon.com/

About KIDDER MATHEWS:

We’ve been giving our clients a competitive edge with local knowledge and expertise for over 50 years. Our team boasts 900 local market specialists and top-producing professionals-serving out of 21 offices across five states. The expertise of each local office is reinforced by the relationships, intelligence, and experience of our entire firm. We offer a complete range of brokerage, appraisal, property management, consulting, project and construction management, and debt and equity finance services for all property types, including industrial, office, R&D, life science, retail, multifamily, and investment.

Contact information:
Rico Cheung, Executive Vice President
KIDDER MATHEWS
201 Redwood Shores Parkway, Suite 125, Redwood City, CA 94065
T (650) 769-3525 C (415) 519-1749 Email: rico.cheung@kidder.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheungrico/
www.kidder.com