FibroGen delivers 250 jobs

South San Francisco biotech moves to Mission Bay

A quiet company with a potential blockbuster drug is setting a new standard for Mission Bay.

FibroGen Inc. is moving 250 employees from South San Francisco to San Francisco’s life sciences enclave, showcasing in its new six-story digs how biotech companies can — literally — build up in land-constrained cities.

At 239,000 square feet, plus an adjacent 211,000-square-foot structure on which FibroGen has an option, the Shorenstein Properties development is the largest project for a single biotech company in Mission Bay. FibroGen is taking more space and moving more people to Mission Bay, for example, than Pfizer Inc. will when it settles there in early 2010.

“San Francisco stepped up to the plate and made the very first and largest experience in Mission Bay smooth from the get-go,” said Tom McDonnell, vice president of leasing for Shorenstein. “Everybody’s going to be able to draft on that success.”