Vestar, one of the leading privately held shopping center owners and managers in the western US, announced that Recursion (NASDAQ: RXRX) has doubled the size of its headquarters at The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City, signing a new lease for an additional 100,000 square feet. The Gateway is a mixed-use lifestyle and entertainment district, – featuring 1.2 million square feet of retail, dining, and office space as well as 1,200 multifamily units.
Recursion originally signed a lease in 2018 for 100,000 square feet at The Gateway, where it currently has over 250 employees. The company is expected to expand into its new space in the second quarter of 2022.
“Recursion is a pioneer in the emerging field of technology-enabled drug discovery. To deliver on our mission we have grown our world-class team of scientists, engineers, clinicians, and company builders by more than 60 percent in the last year,” says Recursion President and COO Tina M. Larson. “Expanding our laboratory footprint will allow us to grow our proprietary biological dataset even faster and add several novel capabilities in biology and chemistry research.”
Recursion’s expansion comes after the formation of BioHive, a new public-private collaboration that will expand business development in Utah’s growing healthcare innovation sector. BioHive serves as the brand representing Utah’s healthcare innovation community, of which Salt Lake City is the hub, supporting some of the greatest entrepreneurs and companies in the country. Leaders from these companies have joined up with local economic development and industry backers to represent more than 1,000 Utah companies in the biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, genomics, biotechnology, health tech, and digital informatics fields. The Gateway sits at the epicenter of BioHive.
“Recursion is a tremendous partner for Salt Lake City on numerous fronts,” says Clark Cahoon, with Salt Lake City Department of Economic Development. “Their continued success in the healthcare innovation ecosystem comes as no surprise with their dedication to improving lives. We applaud this expansion at The Gateway and could not be happier to have Recursion expand their footprint in downtown Salt Lake City.”
“As Life Science Companies continue to grow in Salt Lake City and throughout the United States, our mixed-use retail centers are the perfect fit for their innovative workers who crave culture and the lifestyle our tenant mix provides,” says Jenny Cushing, Vestar VP of Leasing. “We have seen tremendous growth in the Salt Lake City economy as civic leaders and executives continue to position the area as a top location for a diverse spectrum of businesses. We will continue to look for ways to innovate and attract businesses that bring the community together at our center.”
Built in 2001 and situated on 21 acres, The Gateway is located at the intersection of 400 West and South Temple. The center is home to Salt Lake City’s largest outdoor art gallery and hosts nearly 400 events per year. The center is leased to several companies including Dave & Buster’s, Clark Planetarium, HallPass, The Depot by Live Nation, Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatre, Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum, TruFusion, Fidelity Investments, Cicero and Kiln Co-Working.
Vestar was represented in house by Jenny Cushing and by Andy Moffitt, Lance Pendleton, and Troy Hardy with Mountain West Commercial Real Estate. Recursion was represented in-house.