Seaport Centre is a

high-tech High technology (high tech or high-tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or ...

business park A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

located in

Redwood City Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in the Bay Area of Northern California, approximately south of San Francisco and northwest of San Jose. The city's population was 84,292 according to the 2020 census. The Port of Redwo ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States, and as of 2007 is one of the largest biotechnology research complexes in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. The property consists of of developed building area, and is situated in proximity to the

Port of Redwood City The Port of Redwood City is a marine freight terminal on the western side of the southern San Francisco Bay, on the West Coast of the United States. This marine terminal is situated within the city of Redwood City, California. The port was d ...

. The property is classified as

Class A office space An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform administrative work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

and is constructed as a series of separate buildings. The original lands of the Seaport Centre were used as

salt evaporation pond A salt evaporation pond is a shallow artificial salt pan designed to extract salts from sea water or other brines. The salt pans are shallow and expansive, allowing sunlight to penetrate and reach the seawater. Natural salt pans are formed thr ...

s on tidal lands of the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

, a land use that started sometime prior to 1940. As of 2002 leasing rates at Seaport Centre were in the range of $27 per square foot per annum. In 2005,

Slough Estates SEGRO plc (formerly known as Slough Estates Group) is a British property investment and development company based in London, England. It develops and invests in property located in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe focusing on edge of to ...

, a United Kingdom-based

REIT A real estate investment trust (REIT, pronounced "reet") is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of real estate, including office and apartment buildings, studios, warehouses, hos ...

, purchased the entirety of Seaport Centre to develop it as a

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

research center to compete with the existing biotech hubs in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

and

South San Francisco South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is colloquially termed "South City". The population was 66,105 at the 2020 census. History P ...

. The Seaport Centre is located on generally level ground at approximately above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. Stormwater

surface runoff Surface runoff (also known as overland flow or terrestrial runoff) is the unconfined flow of water over the ground surface, in contrast to ''channel runoff'' (or ''stream flow''). It occurs when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other ...

is pumped from Seaport Centre to discharge into Redwood Creek.

Aerial photographic history

Due to the large scale of this area and its historical lack of accessibility, the area history can be revealed well with aerial photographic records. In 1989, the firm of Earth Metrics Incorporated conducted a review of historic aerial photographs dating back to 1956.(Earth Metrics, 1989) The Seaport Centre site and its environs, as of the 1956 aerial stereo photo, were essentially undeveloped, although extensive

s were evident on site. Redwood City Planning Department records confirm that the site was used for salt evaporation since sometime prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Analysis of five sets of time staged stereo pairs of aerial photos reveal that the Seaport Centre site remained undeveloped until 1982; up until that time, city records show that the site was zoned as "Tidal Plain", a designation not allowing urban development. Area land use gradually changed from 1956 until 1982, in the form of gradual building development in the local area. As early as 1956 a

rail spur A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

is evident, which served the loading of raw

sea salt Sea salt is salt that is produced by the evaporation of seawater. It is used as a seasoning in foods, cooking, cosmetics and for preserving food. It is also called bay salt, solar salt, or simply salt. Like mined rock salt, production of sea sal ...

for export from the area. No

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

history is associated with the site, other than the

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

harvesting.

Tenants

Since development of Seaport Centre in the early 1980s there has been a consistent trend of the property's use as a research and development hub for the biotech industry. In a 1989 tenant survey, some of the principal tenants present were: Vascualar Interventions Inc., Genelabs Incorporated, Precision Images Inc., Invitron, Charles Evans Inc., ICT Corporation, Resound Incorporated, Ideon Corporation, Cygnus Research Corp, Color Prep, Aurora Systems Inc., Abekas Video Systems Inc., Personics Inc., Instor Corporation and Visucom, Inc. A number of these early firms utilized a variety of

hazardous material Dangerous goods are substances that are a risk to health, safety, property or the Natural environment, environment during transport. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials (syll ...

s in their normal processes. These substances included a variety of toxic

solvent A solvent (from the Latin language, Latin ''wikt:solvo#Latin, solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a Solution (chemistry), solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas ...

s and other

organic chemical Some chemical authorities define an organic compound as a chemical compound that contains a Carbon–hydrogen bond, carbon–hydrogen or carbon–carbon bond; others consider an organic compound to be any chemical compound that contains carbon. F ...

s such as

acetone Acetone (2-propanone or dimethyl ketone) is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula . It is the simplest and smallest ketone (). It is a colorless, highly Volatile organic compound, volatile, and flammable liquid with a charact ...

benzene Benzene is an Organic compound, organic chemical compound with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar hexagonal Ring (chemistry), ring with one hyd ...

methyl ethyl ketone Butanone, also known as methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) or ethyl methyl ketone, is an organic compound with the formula CH3C(O)CH2CH3. This colorless liquid ketone has a sharp, sweet odor reminiscent of acetone. It is produced industrially on a large s ...

and

toluene Toluene (), also known as toluol (), is a substituted aromatic hydrocarbon with the chemical formula , often abbreviated as , where Ph stands for the phenyl group. It is a colorless, water Water is an inorganic compound with the c ...

. Use of such chemicals on site is considered a risk, since the

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

groundwater at the Seaport Centre is shallow. Current tenants still largely focus on the medical and health fields and include: AcelRx Pharmaceuticals,

Bavarian Nordic Bavarian Nordic A/S is a fully integrated biotechnology company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of vaccines. The company is headquartered in Hellerup, Denmark, with manufacturing facilities in Kvistgård, Denmark ...

Codexis Codexis, Inc. is a protein engineering company that develops enzymes for pharmaceutical, food and medical applications. History Codexis is based in Redwood City, CA and was incorporated in 2002. It went public in April 2010 on NASDAQ, and in ...

, Genomic Health, Guardant Health, Gynesonics, Minerva Surgical,

OncoMed OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was a public American pharmaceutical development company headquartered in Redwood City, California. The company was founded in August 2004 by two University of Michigan investigators, Michael Clarke and Max S. Wicha. ...

Stem Cell Theranostics Stem Cell Theranostics is a privately held biotech company based out of Redwood City, California that provides drug companies with a method to more accurately predict cardiotoxicity and cardiovascular drug efficacy. History Stem Cell Theranosti ...

, and Teva.

Gallery

References

External links

*
Redwood City, California local history
{{Redwood City, California, state=expanded Biotechnology Buildings and structures in San Mateo County, California Redwood City, California Business parks of the United States Science and technology in the San Francisco Bay Area

Aerial photographic history

Tenants

Gallery

See also

References

External links