SiliconBeat

XenoPort, the biopharma that develops technology designed to increase the benefits of existing drugs, will soon be living larger as it signed a lease for about 50 percent more space on Central Expressway in Santa Clara, according to a filing Wednesday. Best of all, it’s getting the space at about half the price.

The company signed a five-year lease with the Sobrato family for 59,000 square feet at 3400 Central Expressway next door to its current headquarters. It is set to take occupancy no later than December. At the same time XenoPort decided to extend its lease on its headquarter space, which has nearly 103,000 square feet, for about two more years so that both leases will expire at the same time.

Over its life, the lease at 3400 Central Expressway will cost $6.14 million, or about $1.73 per square foot per month. Compare that with the rent XenoPort agreed to pay for its headquarters at 3410 Central Expressway when it signed the lease three days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The monthly rent then started at $2.40 per square foot per month, increasing in steps to the $3.45 it will pay in 2010, according to the rental agreement included with the company’s registration filing for its 2005 initial public offering.