Thursday, November 20, 2008

Biotechs vying for limited lab space in Boston suburbs

By Mass High Tech Staff

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Suburbs in the Greater Boston area have become so saturated with biotech companies, they are running out of available lab space to expand.

That was the finding of a recent report from Boston-based Richards Barry Joyce & Partners LLC. On Thursday, the commercial real estate advisory firm announced it had made available its bioSTATus Winter 2009 report. Released twice a year, the bioSTATus publication presents findings on biotech-related real estate trends in Boston, Cambridge and the surrounding suburbs. 

One of the key findings is that because of the explosion of biotech growth in the area, there is currently a “significant dearth” of suburban lab space available, according to a press release. The winter 2009 edition of bioSTATus indicated that currently there are only three Class A options with at least 5,000 square feet in the suburbs. During the past year in the region, some 80 percent of the absorption of lab space has been in the suburbs, as well.

Among the causes of these trends is the lack of large available lab space in Cambridge, along with the significantly higher prices there for real estate, stated Brendan Carroll, vice president of research at Richards Barry Joyce & Partners. This is causing a ripple effect in the suburbs, with a mere smattering of build-to-suit options available there.

Given this situation, it’s not a surprise that the Foxborough-based Kraft Group  is reported to be looking to establish a large biotech office park south of Boston. The firm is considering creating a 1.6 million-square-foot facility in Foxborough on Route 1 across from Gillette Stadium.