MannKind Corp. is selling its Valencia Gateway headquarters for $17.3 million to a private real estate investment trust.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, the company said it is selling the property, which include manufacturing space and land, to Rexford Industrial Realty.
Rexford is buying 11.41 acres of land, a 146,000 square-foot building, and MannKind’s “improvements, personal property, equipment, supplies and fixtures” at the site.
The two-story building was built in 1999 and includes 50,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of lab and support facilities, and 52,000 square feet of warehouse space.
MannKind, a biopharmaceutical company, is trying to launch Afrezza, a rapid-acting inhalable insulin powder for treatment of diabetes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Afrezza in 2014.
Afrezza was intended to be the first widely available drug to use MannKind’s Technosphere formulation technology based on a class of organic molecules that are designed to self-assemble into small particles onto which drug molecules can be loaded. These can be inhaled, replacing medications that can only be delivered by injection.
The company was founded in 1991 as Pharmaceutical Discovery Corp. In 2001, it merged with two other companies owned by Alfred Mann and moved to Valencia.
The sale provides MannKind with a significant cash infusion. Its stock has declined by 56 percent in the year since it ended a marketing agreement with Sanofi to distribute Afrezza.
Rexford is a real estate investment trust that owns and operates 136 industrial properties across Southern California. The company owns about fifteen million rentable square feet and manages another 19 properties with about 1.2 million rentable square feet.
A spokesperson for Rexford said the company would have no comment on the transaction until it closes. According to MannKind’s SEC filing, the deal will close within three business days after a 25-day period that started when Rexford received specified documents that were due by last Friday.
Rexford has placed $500,000 in escrow and will pay the balance when the deal closes.
