🚀📈🤖💉❌📉💫 This week in Bay Area business: a $1 billion biotech bet; S.F. office tenants say yes; nuclear housing news and a pet hotel

Is the biotech sector set for a bounce back?

After widespread overbuilding and soaring vacancies, a $1 billion bet in South San Francisco, a once thriving biotech hotbed, will test the sector’s real estate appetite and perhaps its robustness.

Decisions at the federal level have certainly given the sector plenty to chew on recently, with the ramifications of some starting to bite as witnessed in shrinking headcount at some Bay Area firms. 

In San Francisco this week we had news that the number of office tenants looking to grow or expand their footprint had reached a postpandemic high. 

While data emerged that suggests S.F. might be doing better in getting workers back to offices, a potentially big step in the city’s ongoing recovery.

There was also news of a pet hotel, so if all else fails at least they’ll be taken care of. 

All this and much more in another bumper of Bay Area business news.

San Francisco sees more office tenants looking to grow their space in first quarter by Sarah Klearman

More than a fifth of prospective office tenants looking for space in San Francisco during the first quarter were planning to grow or expand their footprint in the city, according to preliminary data released by real estate services firm CBRE , a postpandemic high.

Here’s the full rundown.

Return-to-office efforts stumble nationally, but S.F. could be countering that trend by Mark Calvey

When it comes to getting workers back to the office, San Francisco has been a consistent laggard. But that may be changing, according to the latest data from Placer.ai.

Read the story.

Intersect 2025: AI-Health Care Symposium

The AI-Health Care Intersect Symposium brings together the clinicians, researchers, and industry leaders making Northern California the global hub for innovation in AI and health care.

Join us for a keynote from C3 AI chairman and CEO Thomas M. Siebel.

With further panels featuring Jo Varshney and Ali Madani, and leaders at MarinHealth, Sutter Health, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and Hill Physicians Medical Group.

Get your tickets here for the April 10 event.

Presidio Bay Ventures founders launch new high-touch real estate services firm by Sarah Klearman

The founders of San Francisco-based developer Presidio Bay Ventures launched a new sister company that will focus on providing a slew of high-touch real estate services, including design and property management. Co-founder K. Cyrus Sanandaji , pictured, says the firm is offering a slew of services no one else is.

Click here for the full story.

Billion-dollar real estate bet could spark a biotech revival by Doug Sams

Overbuilding in major U.S. biotech and pharmaceutical hubs has led to soaring vacancies. In South San Francisco, known as the birthplace of biotech, a $1 billion project will test whether the sector is ready for a rebound.

Rob Paratte of Kilroy Realty Corporation thinks it is.

Here's the full story.

RFK Jr. paused this Peninsula company's half-billion-dollar vaccine contract, then it cut jobs by Ron Leuty

A Peninsula biotech company cut jobs after the federal government last month paused a potential half-billion contract around its experimental oral Covid-19 vaccine.

Here’s the full story.

Former nuclear facility in East Bay could one day give rise to future development by Hannah Kanik

A long-forgotten Bay Area nuclear research facilities has a new owner, which could tee up the site for a future commercial or industrial development project.

Here’s the full story.

Michael Mina restaurant expands in Financial District by Alex Barreira

Michael Mina 's Pabu Izakaya restaurant in the San Francisco Financial District plans to expand into the standalone glass kiosk at 101 California Street.

Read more.

The week in real estate 

• Hilton S.F., Parc 55 seller seeks time to close sale deal

• Historic Berkeley office building in the heart of downtown hits the market

• Robinhood gives fans a new way to play NCAA’s March Madness

• Downtown Berkeley office building to be replaced by 200-unit apartment development

• West Berkeley's vacant Pacific Steel foundry could transform into a life sciences campus

• Lender eyes listing Kylli's 225 Bush St. for sale as loan modification talks slide

• San Francisco's Parkmerced apartments are now in receivership

• Historic Berkeley office building in the heart of downtown hits the market

• Tariffs start to put cost pressure on construction materials

Boise adds to its draw as a Bay Area exodus destination by Mark Calvey

Those leaving the Bay Area once sparked double takes when sharing with friends that they were moving to Boise. Today, Idaho’s capital is billed as a “quiet luxury” hotspot, where the median home price could eventually exceed $1 million.

Here’s the full story.

A dying mall could turn into 1,000 homes and life sciences job by Doug Sams  

A plan to transform the 53-year-old Tanforan shopping center in San Bruno includes up to 1,000 homes and 1.8 million square feet of office space for tech and life sciences companies.

Here’s the story.

Raise the woof: Multistory pet hotel proposed in Dogpatch by Alex Barreira

A large, multifloor pet hotel providing overnight boarding and grooming services is being proposed, fittingly, in the Dogpatch.

Here’s the full story.

SoftBank buys AI chip designer Ampere for $6.5 billion by Sara Bloomberg

Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group is buying Santa Clara-based AI chip designer Ampere Computing in a deal worth $6.5 billion.

Here’s the full story.

 S.F. fintech SmartBiz buys bank and moves headquarters out of California by Mark Calvey

San Francisco-based SmartBiz Loans said Tuesday that it has purchased the parent of Centrust Bank, based in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook. The deal is fueling speculation that there will be more fintechs buying banks ahead.

“We are in a position, with this acquisition, to really meet the needs of small businesses from a banking standpoint across the U.S,” said SmartBiz CEO Evan Singer . “Most small businesses aren’t very well served by banks.”

Read the story here.

Executive profile: Berkeley’s Rigetti Computing is on the verge of a lucrative quantum leap by Ted Andersen

Quantum computing is one of the hottest topics in tech, a holy grail at the end of a billion dollar arms race. Berkeley-based Rigetti Computing is generating much of the buzz. We sat down with CEO Subodh Kulkarni.

Read the full profile.

Intersect 2025: AI-Health Care Symposium

The AI-Health Care Intersect Symposium brings together the clinicians, researchers, and industry leaders making Northern California the global hub for innovation in AI and health care.

Join us for a keynote from C3 AI chairman and CEO Thomas M. Siebel.

With further panels featuring Jo Varshney and Ali Madani, and leaders at MarinHealth, Sutter Health, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and Hill Physicians Medical Group.

Get your tickets here for the April 10 event.

ICYMI here’s what else you need to know

• Shipbuilding operation could dock in Bay Area, California Forever says

• Gov. Newsom gets a wake-up call as he seeks to stem the Bay Area exodus?

• New Berkeley VC fund advances in key committee vote

• Ripple CEO hails end to 'war on crypto' as SEC to drop case

• Vietnamese restaurant Ben Tre nears first San Francisco outpost

• Once-high-flying Cargo Therapeutics looks to ditch remaining work as CEO exits

• The Week in AI

• With fresh $250 million, AI company targets 150 new hires, most of them in S.F.

• Orca Bio targets blood cancer treatment approval next year

• San Francisco's Atomwise secures millions for AI-powered drug discovery

• Foodsmart shakes up leadership, aims to expand food care services nationwide

• New grocery store, restaurant on the way to UCSF

• Fisherman's Wharf taps new community benefit district leader

• St. Patrick’s block party lights up S.F.'s most experienced entertainment zone

Moonshots and Doom Loops 🚀🌁📈➰💫

This weekly Bay Area business  round-up is written by Simon Campbell, special projects editor at the San Francisco Business Times.

Reach out with news tips, questions or comments: [email protected].

Stay safe and have a good week.