Laboratory Real Estate Attracts Robotics Tenants

Kilroy Realty (KRC) and Healthpeak Properties (DOC) both said on their third-quarter 2026 earnings calls, on October 23 and November 3, that robotics companies are leasing empty lab space: robotics and other advanced-technology firms are taking lab buildings that were built for biotech tenants and later sat vacant [1][2]. Healthpeak added that its Torrey Pines lab space in San Diego went from 65% leased six months ago to fully leased [2].

---

Why robotics R&D wants lab buildings: power, floor loads and ceiling heights

Lab buildings are built for biotech experiments, so they carry more electrical capacity, stronger floors and higher ceilings than ordinary offices. For years, whether these buildings filled up depended almost entirely on biotech funding, and the Bay Area, San Diego and Greater Boston were left with a large overhang of vacant lab space. Robotics and other "physical AI" companies assemble and test heavy equipment indoors, which needs high-capacity power, strong floors and tall ceilings that a standard office cannot offer. Healthpeak's CEO named exactly those three features as the reason these tenants are drawn to lab buildings [2].

The demand is spreading beyond single buildings. Kilroy's chief leasing officer said specialized space for robotics companies in San Francisco is constrained and the demand is spilling over into Kilroy's life-science campus in South San Francisco [1]. On the July call he had already said many robotics companies on the Peninsula have requirements above 100,000 square feet, which will reduce the R&D space available to life-science companies [3].

---

Kilroy and Healthpeak report robotics leases filling vacant space

Both landlords gave concrete deals. In the third quarter Kilroy signed a 65,000-square-foot lease with ocean robotics company Ulysses at Oyster Point Tech in South San Francisco, in space formerly leased to 23andMe. Its chief leasing officer also estimated that about 500,000 square feet of AI and robotics demand is looking for space in San Francisco [1].

Healthpeak's numbers show the scale. Its lab occupancy is 79.8%, up 2.7 percentage points since the start of the year [2]. The company called AI and robotics demand purely incremental across all three of its lab markets. These deals mostly happen in shell space or space never built out as lab, where the landlord pays a much smaller tenant-improvement allowance (its contribution to fitting out the interior) and the rent is competitive [2]. The pattern is not brand new: in July 2025 Healthpeak attributed that quarter's lower new-lease rents to a large lease with a robotics R&D tenant [4].

Together these disclosures show the new tenant class is absorbing part of the vacant lab stock, at rents below traditional wet-lab space.

---

Lab vacancy no longer depends on biotech funding alone

Lab landlords' recovery now has a second source of demand. Because the landlord spends far less on fit-out, the return on each dollar of capital can still work even at a lower rent; Healthpeak said plainly that the economics of such deals make sense [2].

Supply is shrinking too. Healthpeak said these tenants are also taking peripheral buildings that were slated for lab conversion, removing them from the lab new-supply count and tightening competition for core lab space [2].

The finding has a clear limit. Biotech is still more than 75% of Healthpeak's leasing pipeline, so robotics is a supplement, not a replacement, and its CFO attributed part of the improvement to the recovery in biotech demand itself [2]. What to track next: Healthpeak says signed leases reach occupancy about 12 to 15 months later, so the test is whether lab occupancy keeps rising in 2027, and whether AI and robotics tenants take a growing share of the pipeline [2].

---

Companies exposed to the shift

• Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE): The largest US lab landlord. At its 311 Arsenal project in Watertown, near Boston, 67,000 square feet are executed and another 101,000 square feet are under negotiation, primarily with advanced-technology tenants [5]. Its lab portfolio is exposed to the same demand, but there is no evidence yet that these leases extend to its other campuses.
• BXP (BXP): An office and life-science landlord. It leased a 322,000-square-foot robotics and AI center to Boston Dynamics in an out-of-service office building in Waltham [6]. That was office space, and about 200,000 square feet of its life-science buildings remain available [7], so whether robotics demand reaches those labs is unverified.

---

Sources

[1] Drillr · Kilroy Realty (KRC) · 2026-10-23 · Q3 2026 earnings call

[2] Drillr · Healthpeak Properties (DOC) · 2026-11-03 · Q3 2026 earnings call

"The robust infrastructure of a lab building is attractive to AI-adjacent users, including robotics, because of power, floor loads, and ceiling heights."

[3] Drillr · Kilroy Realty (KRC) · 2026-07-28 · Q2 2026 earnings call

[4] Drillr · Healthpeak Properties (DOC) · 2025-07-25 · Q2 2025 earnings call

[5] Drillr · Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE) · 2026-10-27 · Q3 2026 earnings call

[6] Drillr · BXP (BXP) · 2026-07-29 · Q2 2026 earnings call

[7] Drillr · BXP (BXP) · 2026-10-28 · Q3 2026 earnings call

This article only helps surface industry changes and companies that may be overlooked. It is not a stock recommendation.