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Ronaldo Cianciarulo has become the latest south of Market developer chasing elusive biotechnology tenants.
Cianciarulo has renamed his Baker Hamilton building at 601 Townsend the Townsend Technology Center and hired brokerage firm Whitney Cressman to market it. Skip Whitney said he will use Baker Hamilton's high ceilings and its proximity to the new University of California, San Francisco medical research campus at Mission Bay as biotech lures. Cianciarulo's two buildings have ceilings ranging from 12 to 14 feet high to accomodate the double piping and extra venting that biotech companies require. The building is located about a half mile from the UC San Francisco campus that is currently under construction at Mission Bay.
Instead of waiting several years for new biotech facilities to be ready there, Cianciarulo is presenting his buildings as ready to occupy much sooner.
Whitney is convinced that biotech is the salvation for some SoMa landlords because of the cluster effect of being near Mission Bay. Whitney has targeted the smaller biotech firms clustered in Fremont and Hayward as the likely candidates...