Alexandria's 499 Illinois Street in Mission Bay, San Francisco, Signs Anchor 97,700 Rentable Square Foot Lease with Leading Mid-Cap Life Science Company

PASADENA, Calif., May 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), the leading and largest owner, operator, and developer of high-quality, sustainable real estate for the broad and diverse life science industry, is honored to announce that a leading mid-cap life science company with an equity market capitalization of approximately $7 - $10 billion will establish its flagship Bay Area R&D center at 499 Illinois Street in Mission Bay, San Francisco.  Located in the heart of one of the life science industry's most vibrant, innovative and entrepreneurial clusters, directly adjacent to UCSF'S research campus and the three new UCSF hospitals complex, 499 Illinois Street will provide this key client tenant with a unique advantage in retaining its existing world-class workforce, attracting new talent, and facilitating its continued growth and scientific dominance within its field. Additionally, as a global company with a broad customer base around the world, the Company's decision to locate this R&D center at 499 Illinois Street reaffirms Mission Bay's preeminent position as a leading international life science ecosystem comprised of world-class pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic, government, and venture capital entities that are collectively developing novel, breakthrough products that will save lives, manage disease and reduce the economic burden of disease on society.

Alexandria's client tenant has signed a 10-year lease at 499 Illinois Street for approximately 97,700 rentable square feet (RSF), or 45%, of the 219,600 RSF facility, consistent with the Company's current "initial yield" projections. The client tenant will open a state-of-the-art R&D center in Mission Bay focused on the development of next generation products and services, as well as a customer demonstration and training center.

Alexandria's Mission Bay life science cluster is renowned for its significant talent base – a dense concentration of Nobel Prize winners, scientists, doctoral students, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and technologists from first-class client tenants including the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), Bayer AG, Celgene Corporation, Fibrogen, Inc., Nektar Therapeutics, Inc., and blue chip venture capital firms such as Novo Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors, Third Rock Ventures, venBio, and Versant Ventures.

At the heart of Mission Bay, UCSF is leading the Precision Medicine revolution, which aims to integrate genomic, clinical and environmental data into routine clinical practice and improve patient diagnosis and treatments. In recent weeks, Mission Bay has garnered international acclaim with the announcement that two major drug developers – Roche and Bayer AG – have initiated strategic partnerships with QB3. In addition to Roche and Bayer AG, Novartis AG and Pfizer Inc. have also joined the QB3 program. With innovative collaborations pioneered by QB3 as well as UCSF's intensifying intellectual and capital investment in translational medicine, Mission Bay has become the epicenter of life science innovation, collaboration and translation in the San Francisco Bay Area. The current market demand is very strong for 499 Illinois Street particularly, and Mission Bay more broadly, from multiple market segments including life science, translational clinical uses and the rapidly expanding technology sector.

"We are honored to welcome this exceptional client tenant to the Mission Bay life science ecosystem and 499 Illinois Street for the creation of an iconic R&D center," said Stephen A. Richardson, Chief Operating Officer and Regional Market Director of Alexandria's San Francisco Bay Area Cluster. "This Company is a world-class organization, and we look forward to integrating its team into the highly innovative and collaborative Mission Bay life science community."

The client tenant's Mission Bay R&D center will feature unique and creative amenity spaces, including a high-quality cafe, an activated bay front plaza with distinct recreational areas, and a cutting-edge fitness center. This iconic campus environment, ideally situated within the highly innovative and urban Mission Bay life science ecosystem, will provide the Company with a unique advantage in recruitment and retention, as well as driving productivity for this world-class organization.

About Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.   
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT), is the leading and largest investment-grade REIT focused principally on owning, operating, redeveloping, developing, and acquiring high-quality, sustainable real estate for the broad and diverse life science industry. Founded in 1994, Alexandria was the first REIT to identify and pursue a primary focus on the laboratory niche and has since had the first-mover advantage in every core life science cluster location including Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, New York City, Seattle, Suburban Washington, D.C., and Research Triangle Park. Alexandria's high-credit client tenants span the life science industry, including renowned academic medical research centers, multinational pharmaceutical companies, public and private biotechnology entities, U.S. government research agencies, medical device companies, industrial biotechnology companies, venture capitalists, and life science product and service companies. Forty-six percent of Alexandria's total annualized base rent is generated from investment-grade client tenants. As the recognized real estate partner of the life science industry, Alexandria has a superior track record in driving client tenant productivity, collaboration, and innovation through its CBD locations adjacent to leading academic medical research centers, best-in-class laboratory/office space, unparalleled life science real estate expertise and services, and longstanding and expansive network in the life science community, which we believe result in higher occupancy levels, longer lease terms, higher rental income, higher returns, and greater long-term asset value. For more information, please visit www.are.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws.  Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.