The rent in San Francisco is too damn high—even for the world’s largest stem cell funding agency.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine confirmed Tuesday that it will be moving its San Francisco office to the cheaper area of Oakland’s Lake Merritt. In doing so, the agency follows in the footsteps of a growing number of San Francisco residents and businesses who have fallen victim to the city’s astronomical rent prices.
“The economics just didn’t work out,” said CIRM spokesman Kevin McCormack. While he acknowledged Mayor Ed Lee’s exhaustive efforts to find them a viable alternative, there was just no way to deny the economic realities of the city’s renting market in the end.
“Space is at a premium [in San Francisco] and building owners get top dollar for it so it’s hard for a small agency like ours – only 53 people right now – to compete.”
For the past decade, CIRM has been enjoying free rent on its 20,000-square-foot space as part of a deal with the city. With that agreement set to expire, the institute was looking at a price tag of around $1.5 million a year. In Oakland, it can get the same amount of space for about $697,560.
Can you blame them?
Read more about the agency’s move here.
Image Credit: Flickr User hagleitn, https://flic.kr/p/5h5gy8 via (CC BY 2.0)