Novartis Breaks Ground on $1.1 Billion San Diego Research Campus

Find out how Novartis plans to spend $1 billion in San Diego – San Diego Union-Tribune

Novartis Breaks Ground on $1.1 Billion San Diego Research Campus Amid Regional Biotech Expansion

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has broken ground on a 466,000-square-foot, $1.1 billion research campus at Campus Point Drive in La Jolla, directly adjacent to UC San Diego Health's Jacobs Medical Center and clinical research facilities. The facility, scheduled to open in 2029, will consolidate West Coast operations and employ approximately 1,000 workers, strengthening the symbiotic relationship between pharmaceutical research and UC San Diego's clinical and academic infrastructure while highlighting the geographic and economic divide between San Diego's thriving northern life sciences cluster and a struggling downtown core that has seen limited spillover benefits from the region's biotech boom.

Major Pharmaceutical Investment Anchors San Diego's Biotech Hub

Novartis officially commenced construction Friday on its West Coast headquarters at the Campus Point by Alexandria development, marking one of the largest single pharmaceutical investments in San Diego County history. The 466,000-square-foot campus forms a cornerstone of the company's broader $23 billion U.S. investment strategy announced in 2024.

"San Diego is certainly one of the top places in the U.S. right now," said Thierry Diagana, head of global health and California sites for Novartis Biomedical Research. "It's a no-brainer if you want to be a major life science innovator."

The facility will focus on developing treatments for neurological diseases, oncology, and diseases of aging, with particular emphasis on creating the first therapy for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), a neurological condition affecting an estimated 1,300 San Diegans and approximately 150,000 Americans nationwide.

The campus is being developed by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., a leading life sciences real estate investment trust that has played a pivotal role in shaping San Diego's biotech infrastructure. The flexible, modular design incorporates mobile laboratory equipment to accommodate rapid technological advances, particularly in artificial intelligence and gene therapy applications.

Strategic Proximity to UC San Diego Health: A Critical Geographic Advantage

The selection of the Campus Point location represents a calculated strategic decision that places Novartis in immediate proximity to UC San Diego Health's major clinical facilities. The new research campus will be directly adjacent to Jacobs Medical Center (9300 Campus Point Drive) and the Koman Family Outpatient Pavilion (9400 Campus Point Drive), creating unprecedented opportunities for pharmaceutical research integration with clinical operations.

This geographic proximity offers Novartis several critical advantages that distinguish Campus Point from other potential locations:

Direct Access to Clinical Research Infrastructure: UC San Diego Health operates extensive clinical research programs across multiple therapeutic areas directly relevant to Novartis' focus, including oncology, neuroscience, and cardiovascular disease. The physical adjacency enables pharmaceutical researchers to collaborate seamlessly with physician-scientists conducting patient-oriented research.

Patient Population Access for Clinical Trials: Proximity to Jacobs Medical Center, a 364-bed advanced medical facility that opened in 2016, provides access to diverse patient populations for clinical trial recruitment. UC San Diego Health has established expertise in managing complex clinical trials, including Phase I through Phase III studies across multiple therapeutic areas.

Translational Medicine Pipeline: The location bridges laboratory research and clinical application, facilitating the translational medicine process that moves discoveries from bench to bedside. UC San Diego Health physicians frequently collaborate with industry partners on investigational new drug applications and early-phase clinical studies.

Specialized Clinical Capabilities: Jacobs Medical Center houses specialized facilities including advanced surgical suites with intraoperative imaging capabilities, a dedicated floor for blood and marrow transplantation with specialized air filtration systems, and comprehensive neuroscience facilities—all directly relevant to Novartis' therapeutic focus areas.

The Campus Point location is also served by the UC San Diego Health La Jolla trolley station, which opened in November 2021 as part of the Mid-Coast Trolley extension. The elevated station at Campus Point Drive and Voigt Drive provides direct bridge access to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and walking access to the broader UC San Diego Health campus, enhancing connectivity for employees and facilitating collaborative research activities.

UC San Diego: The Academic Engine Behind Biotech Growth

Beyond the immediate clinical adjacency, the Novartis investment reinforces the critical symbiotic relationship between San Diego's commercial life sciences sector and UC San Diego's broader research enterprise. The university's Torrey Pines campus has functioned as the primary intellectual and talent pipeline for the region's biotech cluster, with particular strengths in molecular biology, genetics, neuroscience, and computational biology.

UC San Diego operates multiple research institutes directly relevant to Novartis' focus areas, including the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, and extensive cancer research programs at Moores Cancer Center. The university has consistently ranked among the top institutions nationally for National Institutes of Health research funding, providing a steady stream of discoveries that often transition into commercial applications.

The geographic concentration creates opportunities for collaborative research agreements, sponsored research projects, and direct recruitment of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. Many San Diego biotech companies maintain formal and informal relationships with UC San Diego faculty, who often serve as scientific advisors or consultants.

Novartis' focus on gene therapies and RNA therapeutics aligns particularly well with UC San Diego's established expertise in these emerging modalities. The university's faculty have published extensively on CRISPR applications, gene delivery mechanisms, and precision medicine approaches that form the scientific foundation for next-generation therapeutics.

UC San Diego has actively cultivated industry relationships, recognizing that commercial partnerships provide both funding and translational pathways for academic discoveries. The university's Office of Innovation and Commercialization facilitates connections between faculty researchers and industry partners, helping navigate intellectual property considerations and contractual arrangements.

The Northern Biotech Corridor: A Self-Reinforcing Ecosystem

The Campus Point location, while technically in the La Jolla/University Town Center area, functions as an extension of the broader northern biotech corridor that extends through Torrey Pines, Sorrento Valley, and Sorrento Mesa. This geographic clustering has created a self-reinforcing ecosystem that includes:

Major Pharmaceutical and Biotech Firms: Illumina (genomic sequencing), Thermo Fisher Scientific (laboratory instruments and reagents), Takeda Pharmaceutical (oncology and rare diseases), Ionis Pharmaceuticals (RNA-targeted therapeutics), and numerous mid-size biotechnology companies.

Specialized Service Providers: Contract research organizations, clinical trial management firms, regulatory consultants, patent attorneys specializing in biotechnology, and specialized recruiting firms focused on life sciences talent.

Research Institutes: Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and the Scripps Research Institute, all within proximity to commercial biotech operations.

Venture Capital and Investment: A concentration of life sciences-focused venture capital firms and angel investors familiar with biotechnology development cycles and regulatory pathways.

This ecosystem density creates significant advantages for companies like Novartis. Scientists can move between organizations without relocating, facilitating talent circulation and knowledge transfer. Collaborative research projects can be established more easily when partners are geographically proximate. Specialized equipment and services become economically viable when supported by multiple customers in close proximity.

Real Estate Implications and the Alexandria Advantage

Alexandria Real Estate Equities has been instrumental in developing San Diego's biotech infrastructure, with the Campus Point development representing a crown jewel in the company's megacampus strategy. As of mid-2025, Campus Point consisted of 1.3 million square feet of space with an occupancy rate of 98.8%, demonstrating sustained demand despite broader market challenges.

The Novartis lease, executed in 2025, represents the largest life science lease in Alexandria's 31-year history. The 16-year lease commitment signals long-term confidence in the San Diego biotech ecosystem and provides Alexandria with a blue-chip anchor tenant for the Campus Point expansion.

Construction commenced in early 2026 with expected delivery in 2028-2029, targeting 100% electrification and LEED Gold Core & Shell and Fitwel certifications. The ultra-efficient, high-performance laboratory facility will prioritize energy efficiency and water use reduction, as well as occupant health and wellness. The distinctive design emphasizes natural light, optimizes shared spaces to promote connectivity, and features an expansive terrace as a central gathering place.

Alexandria's involvement signals continued confidence in the region's life sciences sector despite national concerns about commercial real estate valuations and interest rate pressures. The company's business model focuses on creating purpose-built laboratory and research space in established life sciences clusters, typically near major research universities and medical centers—precisely the profile that Campus Point embodies.

The life sciences real estate market in San Diego's northern corridor has remained relatively resilient compared to other commercial real estate segments, supported by consistent demand from expanding biotech companies. However, the county-wide vacancy rate for life sciences space reached 30.6% at the end of the second quarter of 2025, according to JLL, with the University Town Center submarket showing a 21.7% vacancy rate. Industry analysts note that these elevated vacancy rates stem partly from biotech companies like Novartis moving into new, purpose-built facilities while leaving older space vacant.

Employment Impact and Intensifying Talent Competition

The planned workforce of approximately 1,000 employees represents a significant addition to San Diego County's life sciences employment base, which has grown substantially over the past decade. However, the expansion also intensifies competition for specialized scientific talent in a region already experiencing shortages of qualified researchers, particularly in genetics, neuroscience, and gene therapy.

The northern biotech corridor faces persistent challenges in attracting and retaining talent due to San Diego's high housing costs. While salaries in the life sciences sector are generally competitive, the premium required to secure housing in proximity to the La Jolla-University Town Center employment center can strain even well-compensated professionals. Many workers face lengthy commutes from more affordable areas in South Bay, East County, or North County coastal and inland regions.

Novartis has demonstrated a pattern of accessing local talent through strategic acquisitions of San Diego-based biotechnology companies. In 2024, the company acquired Kate Therapeutics for $1.1 billion, focusing on neuromuscular disease treatments using gene therapies. In 2023, Novartis purchased Regulus Therapeutics for $1.7 billion, expanding its RNA-therapeutics capabilities and renal disease pipeline.

These acquisitions not only bring intellectual property and research pipelines but also integrate local scientific teams familiar with San Diego's collaborative research environment and often with existing relationships to UC San Diego faculty and research programs.

Downtown San Diego: Left Behind by the Biotech Boom

While the northern biotech corridor flourishes, downtown San Diego has experienced minimal economic spillover from the region's life sciences success. The geographic separation between the primary biotech cluster and the city's urban core—approximately 15-20 miles depending on specific locations—has created distinct economic trajectories.

Downtown San Diego's economy remains heavily dependent on tourism, hospitality, convention business, and government employment, sectors that have faced significant challenges in recent years. The shift toward remote work has reduced demand for downtown office space, contributing to elevated vacancy rates and depressed commercial real estate values in the urban core.

Unlike some cities where biotech development has occurred in or near downtown areas—such as Boston's Seaport District or Philadelphia's University City—San Diego's life sciences sector has concentrated in northern coastal locations near research institutions and medical centers rather than gravitating toward the traditional business district. This geographic pattern reflects several factors:

Proximity to Research Universities and Medical Centers: UC San Diego's location in La Jolla, including both the main campus and the UC San Diego Health medical facilities, and the clustering of independent research institutes in the Torrey Pines area created natural nucleation points for biotech development far from downtown.

Laboratory Space Requirements: Biotech firms require specialized facilities that are difficult and expensive to retrofit into existing downtown buildings designed for traditional office use. The Campus Point development, for example, provides purpose-built laboratory infrastructure with advanced HVAC systems, specialized utilities, and biosafety containment capabilities.

Talent Preferences: Many scientists and researchers prefer locations closer to UC San Diego, beach communities, and established residential neighborhoods rather than downtown living, particularly when commute times to research institutions and collaborators are a consideration.

Clinical Trial Infrastructure: Proximity to major medical centers like UC San Diego Health facilitates clinical trial operations, patient recruitment, and physician-scientist collaborations that are essential to pharmaceutical development.

Historical Development Patterns: By the time San Diego's biotech sector began substantial growth in the 1990s and 2000s, the northern corridor had already established itself as the region's research and development hub, anchored by UC San Diego and independent research institutes.

The economic divergence has created political and planning tensions within the city and county. While the biotech sector generates substantial tax revenue, high-wage employment, and national prestige, these benefits accrue primarily to northern communities while downtown struggles with homelessness, retail vacancies, and reduced foot traffic.

Some urban planners and economic development officials have proposed initiatives to create satellite biotech facilities or research spaces in downtown San Diego, potentially leveraging underutilized commercial real estate. However, such efforts face significant challenges in competing with the established advantages of the northern corridor, including its proximity to UC San Diego, UC San Diego Health clinical facilities, existing ecosystem of supporting services, and concentration of specialized talent.

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SIDEBAR: The Horton Plaza Opportunity - A Missed Connection

Infrastructure Already Exists for Downtown-Biotech Link

The vacant Horton Plaza complex in downtown San Diego represents a potentially strategic asset that city officials have failed to leverage for connecting downtown to the region's thriving biotech sector. With the Blue Line trolley providing direct service between downtown and the UC San Diego Health La Jolla station—a connection established with the Mid-Coast Trolley extension in November 2021—the infrastructure for bridging the geographic divide already exists.

Industry observers have suggested repurposing portions of the Horton Plaza complex as specialized medical and scientific conference facilities that could serve as a downtown complement to the San Diego Convention Center. The life sciences sector generates substantial demand for mid-size conference venues suitable for scientific symposia, research presentations, clinical trial investigators' meetings, and pharmaceutical industry gatherings—events typically too specialized or too small for the Convention Center's massive exhibition halls but too large for hotel meeting rooms.

A medical conference center at Horton Plaza could function as a vital link in an integrated downtown-La Jolla conference corridor. Scientists and physicians attending conferences could easily access both downtown hotel infrastructure and the Convention Center via the trolley system, while also maintaining convenient access to UC San Diego Health facilities, research laboratories, and the broader biotech campus in La Jolla. This would create opportunities for hybrid events that combine convention center exhibition space with specialized breakout facilities and direct site visits to research institutions.

The model exists in other biotech hubs. Boston's Seaport District has successfully integrated conference facilities, hotels, and research institutions in close geographic proximity, creating a self-reinforcing ecosystem for scientific meetings and industry events. Philadelphia's University City similarly leverages proximity between convention facilities and academic medical centers to attract medical and scientific conferences that generate substantial economic impact through high-value visitors.

San Diego's advantage lies in existing infrastructure that already connects the pieces—the trolley line that didn't exist in Boston or Philadelphia when their biotech conference ecosystems developed. The city has the transportation backbone, an underutilized downtown asset, and a world-class biotech cluster generating conference demand. What's missing is the institutional vision and political will to execute the connection.

The economic potential is substantial. Medical and scientific conferences attract attendees with significant per-diem budgets, extended stays that include hotel accommodations and restaurant spending, and high likelihood of return visits for business development or collaborative research. Unlike leisure tourism, conference attendees visit during off-peak periods and generate spending at downtown restaurants and hotels during weekdays.

Pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and academic medical centers regularly host investigator meetings, advisory board sessions, and continuing medical education events that require professional conference facilities but don't justify Convention Center-scale infrastructure. Specialized facilities designed for scientific presentations—with appropriate audio-visual capabilities, breakout rooms for small group discussions, and proximity to both downtown hotels and research facilities—could capture a market segment currently underserved in San Diego.

City Hall, however, has shown little interest in proposals to leverage Horton Plaza for biotech conference infrastructure. Economic development officials have focused primarily on traditional retail or residential redevelopment concepts for the site, missing the opportunity to create a strategic link between downtown and the region's most dynamic economic sector. The reluctance reflects broader patterns in San Diego's economic development approach, which has struggled to capitalize on adjacencies and connections that could bridge the city's geographic economic disparities.

The 15-minute trolley ride between downtown and UC San Diego Health represents more than convenient transit—it's a potential economic development corridor that remains largely unexploited. While other cities scramble to create the infrastructure connections that San Diego already possesses, local officials have failed to recognize or act on the opportunity literally sitting vacant in the heart of downtown.

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Novartis' California Footprint and Regional Economic Integration

Novartis established its California presence 25 years ago with the founding of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in Torrey Pines. The company currently operates facilities in Sorrento Valley and Torrey Pines, and recently opened a cancer drug manufacturing plant in Carlsbad, creating a distributed network of operations across San Diego County's northern corridor.

The consolidation of West Coast operations into the new Campus Point campus reflects a strategic shift toward centralized research operations while maintaining specialized manufacturing capabilities at separate locations. According to Fiona Marshall, president of biomedical research at Novartis, the facility is "designed to power future drug discovery, with a focus on genetics and human biology in key therapeutic areas such as neuroscience and oncology."

Diagana noted that while most pharmaceutical activity occurs outside Southern California, many breakthrough medicines marketed by Novartis originated from San Diego scientists, particularly in oncology, neuroscience, and global health applications. This track record of innovation stemming from San Diego operations, combined with the strategic proximity to UC San Diego Health's clinical research infrastructure, provides strong justification for the substantial investment.

The Carlsbad manufacturing facility represents an important complement to research operations, creating a complete development pipeline within the San Diego region. Manufacturing capabilities allow Novartis to move promising therapies from laboratory research through clinical development and into production without requiring technology transfer to distant production sites, potentially accelerating development timelines.

Notably, Novartis closed a smaller facility at 10210 Campus Point Drive in 2024 as part of a broader restructuring, eliminating approximately 100 jobs. The closure of that gene therapy development site while simultaneously investing $1.1 billion in a new, much larger Campus Point facility signals a strategic consolidation and expansion strategy rather than overall retrenchment from the San Diego market.

Collaborative Research Networks and Industry Partnerships

Beyond direct employment, the Campus Point facility's adjacency to UC San Diego Health will likely strengthen collaborative research networks connecting academia, clinical medicine, and industry throughout the San Diego region. These partnerships can take multiple forms:

Sponsored Research Agreements: Pharmaceutical companies fund specific research projects at universities or medical centers, gaining access to academic expertise, clinical populations, and facilities while supporting basic science and translational research.

Clinical Trial Collaborations: Industry-sponsored clinical trials conducted at UC San Diego Health facilities allow pharmaceutical companies to access patient populations, physician expertise, and clinical research infrastructure while providing patients access to investigational therapies.

Licensing Agreements: Companies license intellectual property developed at academic or independent research institutions, providing revenue streams that support further research while acquiring promising drug candidates or platform technologies.

Joint Research Initiatives: Collaborative projects where industry and academic scientists work together on shared research questions, combining commercial focus with academic rigor and often leveraging complementary technical capabilities.

Material Transfer Agreements: Arrangements allowing researchers to share biological materials, cell lines, reagents, or research tools that facilitate scientific progress across organizational boundaries.

Physician-Scientist Consultancies: UC San Diego Health physician-scientists often serve as consultants or scientific advisors to pharmaceutical companies, providing clinical expertise that informs drug development strategies.

The physical proximity created by Novartis' Campus Point location removes logistical barriers to collaboration. Scientists can walk between facilities for meetings, shared equipment access becomes more feasible, and informal interactions that often spark innovative ideas occur more naturally.

Broader National Investment Context

The San Diego campus represents one component of Novartis' extensive U.S. expansion program, which includes a new flagship manufacturing hub in North Carolina, facility expansions in Indiana and New Jersey, and planned manufacturing sites in Florida and Texas. This geographic diversification strategy balances research concentration in established biotech hubs with manufacturing distribution closer to patient populations and transportation networks.

The investment timeline, with an anticipated 2029 opening, positions Novartis to capitalize on emerging treatment modalities, particularly gene therapies and precision medicine approaches that require specialized laboratory infrastructure and computational resources. The modular facility design acknowledges the rapid pace of technological change in biomedical research, particularly advances in artificial intelligence, automated experimentation, and high-throughput screening methods.

The $23 billion U.S. investment program announced in 2024 reflects broader pharmaceutical industry trends toward domestic manufacturing and research capacity, driven partly by supply chain concerns highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic and partly by policy incentives encouraging domestic pharmaceutical production.

Patient Advocacy and Rare Disease Focus

The facility's emphasis on Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease reflects growing pharmaceutical industry interest in rare and neglected neurological conditions, often driven by scientific advances that make previously intractable diseases more amenable to treatment. CMT causes progressive nerve damage, typically beginning in extremities and potentially leading to severe mobility impairment or respiratory complications.

Susan Ruediger, a CMT patient who participated in the groundbreaking ceremony, articulated the urgency felt by patient communities: "I don't have anything to take, I just watch my body deteriorate. Right now, I'm thinking I'll be in a wheelchair in the next 10 to 15 years, and I'm way too young for that."

The focus on rare diseases aligns with federal incentive structures, including Orphan Drug Act provisions that provide market exclusivity and tax benefits for treatments addressing conditions affecting fewer than 200,000 Americans. These incentives have made rare disease drug development increasingly attractive to pharmaceutical companies, despite smaller patient populations.

The proximity to UC San Diego Health's neuroscience clinical programs, including specialized neuromuscular clinics, provides Novartis with potential clinical trial sites and access to patient populations for CMT and other neurological conditions targeted by the research facility.

Regional Economic Outlook and Persistent Challenges

The Novartis investment provides a significant vote of confidence in San Diego's economic trajectory, specifically in the biotech sector concentrated in the northern corridor. However, the investment also highlights persistent regional challenges that could constrain future growth.

Housing Affordability: San Diego County consistently ranks among the least affordable major metropolitan areas in the United States. The disconnect between housing costs and even competitive professional salaries creates recruitment and retention challenges for employers. The La Jolla and University Town Center areas command particularly high housing prices due to coastal proximity and school district quality.

Infrastructure Constraints: Transportation infrastructure connecting residential areas to the northern employment corridor remains inadequate, contributing to traffic congestion and lengthy commutes. While the Mid-Coast Trolley extension improved public transportation access to the UC San Diego Health area, many employees still rely on personal vehicles. Interstate 5 and Interstate 805 experience severe congestion during peak commute hours.

Geographic Economic Disparities: The concentration of high-wage biotech employment in the northern corridor while downtown and southern communities struggle economically creates political tensions and questions about equitable regional development. Tax revenue generated by biotech companies supports regional services, but the benefits are geographically concentrated.

Competition from Other Regions: Other biotech hubs, particularly in states with more favorable tax structures or lower costs of living, actively recruit both companies and talent from California. States including North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Texas offer various incentives to attract life sciences companies.

The 2029 completion timeline will test San Diego's ability to maintain its competitive advantages in biotech research while addressing these structural challenges. The region's success in retaining and expanding its life sciences sector will depend not only on research excellence, established ecosystem advantages, and proximity to world-class academic medical centers like UC San Diego Health, but also on addressing quality-of-life factors that influence location decisions for both companies and the specialized professionals they employ.

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Verified Sources

1. Harff, Noelle. "Find out how Novartis plans to spend $1 billion in San Diego." The San Diego Union-Tribune, February 6, 2026. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/02/06/novartis-san-diego-billion-dollar-campus/

2. Novartis AG. "Designing for the Future: The Next Era of Biomedical Research in San Diego." Corporate website. https://www.novartis.com/us-en/stories/novartis-biomedical-research-hub-san-diego-thierry-diagana

3. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. "Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Executes Largest Life Science Lease in Company History." Press release, July 2025. https://investor.are.com/news-events-and-webcasts/news/

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6. San Diego Business Journal. "Big Pharma a Bright Spot in Life Science Real Estate." August 13, 2025. https://www.sdbj.com/real-estate/commercial/big-pharma-a-bright-spot-in-life-science-real-estate/

7. CoStar. "These Signs Show Recovery May Be Ahead for US Biotech Real Estate." Industry analysis, 2025.

8. National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). "Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease." Information resource. https://rarediseases.org

9. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Orphan Drug Act - Relevant Excerpts." Regulatory framework. https://www.fda.gov/industry/designating-orphan-product-drugs-and-biological-products/orphan-drug-act-relevant-excerpts

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Note: This article is based on the provided source document from The San Diego Union-Tribune dated February 6, 2026, supplemented with information from Alexandria Real Estate Equities investor materials, Novartis corporate communications, UC San Diego Health facility information, and contextual information about San Diego's biotech sector, regional economic patterns, and relevant regulatory frameworks. Additional reporting would benefit from access to detailed site plans, UC San Diego Health collaborative research statistics, San Diego Economic Development Corporation data, downtown San Diego economic reports, and local employment and real estate data that were not available in the provided materials.