The site of the former Pleasanton Plaza retail complex will become the new home for one of Pleasanton's best-known companies in the next couple of years, after the City Council unanimously approved a redevelopment application from 10x Genomics on Tuesday.

Located just south of Stoneridge Shopping Center, the 14.6-acre site at 1701 Springdale Ave. is now poised to be made over into a new campus where the biotech company will conduct a variety of research, development and laboratory work. Three new buildings totaling 381,000 square feet and a multilevel parking garage will be constructed over three phases lasting several years.

With a number of community benefits anticipated from the project including increased sales and property tax revenue, transportation improvements and a $1 million contribution toward renovations for Fire Station No. 2, CEO and co-founder Serge Saxonov told the council that evening, "We see this relationship as a social pact with you to better the community's progress and improvement."

"We are very mission-driven. The people who work in the company are here to improve the world," Saxonov said. "We want to make things better, we want to create value, we want to make good stuff happen."

Mayor Karla Brown said she looks forward to bringing more high-paying jobs to Pleasanton with redevelopment of the site.

"It's a priority for this council, our community and innovation technology to expand our life sciences industry. And this is a giant leap forward in doing that," Brown said, adding that "it was a pleasure to see the old buildings go down" at the project site "because they had reached a state of embarrassment."

Headquartered in Pleasanton for more than a decade, with facilities at both Stoneridge Corporate Plaza and Koll Center, 10x Genomics intends to consolidate and expand its existing operations, starting with Phase 1 of construction.

Set to open next year, the first building will have office space and clean rooms for labs, and be constructed in a contemporary style using a mix of materials and textures. A new plaza is also planned at the northeast end of the site, connecting the campus to Stoneridge Shopping Center, West Dublin-Pleasanton BART Station, and nearby office and residential developments.

The first phase will be designed to develop pedestrian connections to internal open spaces such as a central courtyard area for outdoor collaboration among employees, and buildings constructed during later phases of the project. Staff said much of the site will remain vacant and temporarily fenced off during Phase 1.

Conceptual designs including the color scheme and native landscaping for the project drew praise from city officials.

"I find it an extremely attractive designed LED Gold building," Councilmember Jack Balch said before voting. "It comprises, Phase 2 and 3, an entire city block in our community with what I believe is gracious setbacks and abundant landscaping."

Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce CEO and president Steve Van Dorn concurred during the public hearing, saying, "Even though this was my third time seeing a presentation on this exciting project, I continue to be amazed at how positive an impact this will make to our community and our city."

"This is a dream project for any community and perfectly matches our city's economic development focus of expanding our life sciences business sector," Van Dorn said. "We believe they have crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's on this fantastic project."

Approximately 483 surface parking spaces -- equivalent to roughly 2 spaces per 1,000 square feet -- will be added for Building 1 during Phase 1 of construction, making use of a portion of the site's existing parking lot, which will be resurfaced and restriped. Upgraded lighting, landscaping and new sidewalk access will also be added. The entire buildout of Phase 1 is expected to reach completion by 2023.

During the later phases, "an additional 231,000 square feet of building area within one or two additional buildings generally along the east side of the subject site," along with a six-level parking structure with 1,172 parking spaces and 80 surface level parking spaces along the site's west side will be added, according to public documents. The city is also expected to receive another estimated $5 million from impact fees during Phases 2 and 3.

The building timeline for the later phases will be determined by the company's business needs at the time, but staff expects work to finish by 2030.

To recognize the company's long-term investment in the community, the city will rename the currently-named street Fabian Court, which connects the 10x Genomics building on Stoneridge Mall Road to the new campus on Springdale Avenue, later this year.