Update: City Council approves zoning changes that aim to lure life sciences campus to Pacific Steel site

Update, March 26: The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a plan to change zoning rules for the former Pacific Steel Casting foundry. The council did not take up a proposal from the Confederated Villages of Lisjan to require that a developer consult with the Ohlone group about any plans to redevelop the site.

Plan to redevelop Pacific Steel site on hold, but Berkeley still has hope for life sciences campus

Original story, March 24: Berkeley is poised to rewrite zoning rules for the former Pacific Steel Casting foundry this week, in a move city officials hope will lay the groundwork for a major new life sciences campus to eventually sprout at the vacant industrial site.

But any transformation for the hulking and graffiti-covered plants just off Interstate 80 appears to be years away at best, after a proposal for the property was put on ice.

An investment group put forward an ambitious vision in 2023 — five years after Pacific Steel shuttered the facility along Gilman Street — of building a hub for life sciences companies spread across a 10-acre campus that would replace the foundry and the nearby former home of Berkeley Forge and Tool. The site was sold later that year in a step toward the project, which was dubbed Gilman Forge.

But development consultant Mark Rhoades, who worked on the proposal, said it “died on the vine” in the midst of broader uncertainty about the future of life sciences construction in Berkeley.

Still, the plan to change zoning rules for the property — which is a prerequisite for any effort to build research and development space there — is moving forward even if the Gilman Forge project isn’t.

The new land use regulations would allow for research and development, offices and both light and heavy manufacturing on the property, a range of uses that firms in the life sciences are typically looking for. The site is currently only zoned for manufacturing. The City Council is set to take up the new zoning at its meeting Tuesday.

The proposal would set a 55-foot height cap for buildings at the site, but would allow a developer with plans for a major project that meets certain conditions to build up to 105 feet with approval from the Zoning Adjustments Board.

The City Council will also have to decide whether the regulations should include a request from the Confederated Villages of Lisjan to require that developers consult with the Ohlone group about any plans to develop the site, because of the potential for such a project to disturb cultural resources or human remains. Representatives for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan did not respond to a request for comment.

Surge of life sciences space has met waning demand

Rhoades said the city’s proposed rules for what would be dubbed the “manufacturing, research and development” zone are a positive step that will allow someone to build a bustling campus at the site — one day.

But the life sciences sector is no longer surging the way it was a few years ago, when the pandemic and low interest rates spurred a wave of investment in health companies, as well as a burst of construction centered around Aquatic Park in West Berkeley that aimed to meet the need for research and development space.

The torrent of investment has slowed since then and many companies have downsized, softening demand for new facilities. Meanwhile that construction boom has left a glut of supply — Berkeley Commons, a complex at the west end of Addison Street boasting more than 500,000 square feet of space, has struggled to attract tenants since it opened last year. With UC Berkeley also starting construction of an “innovation zone” with lab space downtown, developers have paused their plans to build two other projects — one at the corner of Fourth Street and Bancroft Way, the other at 700 Grayson St. — that would bring another half-million square feet of life sciences space around Aquatic Park.

Those factors will need to change for the proposed campus at the Pacific Steel site to become a reality, according to Rhoades.

“There [are] other projects that are going to have to go forward before that one does,” he said.