San Francisco Commercial Real Estate 

Medivation grabs big lab space in Mission Bay

Cancer drug developer Medivation Inc. has leased 43,000 square feet at 499 Illinois St. in Mission Bay and will establish a laboratory in the space.

The San Francisco company is headquartered at 525 Market St., where it occupies about 86,000 square feet.

The deal comes a month after landlord,Alexandria Real Estate Equities, announced that the University of California, San Francisco, will establish a 30,000 square foot clinical and translational research unit focused on endocrinology in the building. And it comes five months after Alexandria landed a 100,000 square foot lease with San Diego-based Illumina Inc.(NASDAQ: ILMN).

It has been quite a turnaround for Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN). Three years ago, the biotech company terminated a 63,817-square-foot lease at 345 Spear St. following a disappointing Phase III trial for Dimebon, an experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug the company was developing with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE). Since then, Medivation has focused on enzalutamide, branded as the prostate cancer drug Xtandi since it won Food and Drug Administration approval in August 2012.

Xtandi net sales in the United States, where Medivation sells the drug with partner Astellas Pharma Inc., hit $82.4 million in the second quarter

The company, led by President and CEO Dr. David Hung, continues to conduct studies of enzalutamide at different stages of prostate cancer, and this summer it started a Phase II trial of the drug in a tough-to-diagnose type of breast cancer.

The Medivation lease leaves Alexandria with 35,000 square feet of vacancy on the property — 8,000 square feet on the first floor and 28,000 square feet on the second floor. In an earnings call this week, Alexandria CEO Joel Marcus said the group is in active discussions for all of the remaining space with a number of tenants.

Carter Beim of Colliers International represented Medivation.

The Medivation deal comes as Mission Bay is experiencing its strongest two quarters of leasing in years. In addition to the three recent deals at 499 Illinois St., Cisco Systems Inc.(NASDAQ: CSCO) has bolstered its presence in the enclave, signing a 67,000-square-foot lease at 500 Terry Francois Blvd. Also, Kaiser Permanente announced in June that it had agreed to buy 1600 Owens St., a building site approved for a 264,000 square-foot office building. Alexandria was the seller in that transaction.

Alexandria bought 409-499 Illinois St. from Shorenstein Properties and SKS Developmentfor $290 million. The 409 building is fully leased to drug developer Fibrogen Inc.