The booming biotech market in Greater Boston and Cambridge has sparked demand in areas such as Waltham-Lexington where tenants can save nearly $30-a-square-foot as compared to asking rents in East Cambridge for example. While there's been a 178% increase in laboratory inventory since 2004 in the Lexington-Waltham market, lab vacancy since that time has dropped from 34% to 0.7% at the end of first quarter 2017, Transwestern states.

“Waltham and Lexington, given their proximity to Cambridge and the region's major highways, have become the center of life sciences in the Greater Boston suburbs,” says TCG's Smith. “The suburbs have begun feeling the pinch of constraint in laboratory space that has been an issue for Cambridge. King Street Properties is addressing this demand with 828 Winter St., which will appeal to life sciences users that are looking to either establish or expand in the market.”

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. provided debt financing services for the construction of 828 Winter St. The project team includes architect Perkins+Will and general contractor BW Kennedy & Co.

WALTHAM, MA—King Street Properties has officially begun construction on 828 Winter St., a speculative laboratory and office building being built adjacent to a property it acquired nearly two years ago for more than $104 million.

The 828 Winter St. building will total 144,910-square feet and will feature laboratory and office space. The project is scheduled for completion in mid-2018. In 2015, Cambridge MA-based King Street Properties and joint Venture partner Carlyle Group of Washington, DC acquired the adjoining 830 Winter St. from Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. of Boston for $104.2 million. The building is fully leased to Histogenics Corp., GlaxoSmithKline and ImmunoGen Inc.

When the 828 Winter St. building is complete, the two-building campus will encompass 330,000 square feet, making it the largest multi-tenant lab campus outside Cambridge, according to Transwestern Consulting Group partners Eric Smith and Jon Varholak, who are providing leasing services for the building. The 828 Winter St. building, Waltham's only speculative lab project, will feature three floors of approximately 48,000 square feet each and state-of-the-art laboratory base building mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. A published report in the Boston Globe put the cost of the 828 Winter St. building at approximately $200 million.

“We purchased this site in August 2015 because we see Waltham as a world-class life sciences destination, home to a wide range of innovators,” says Tyson Reynoso, senior associate at King Street Properties. “Since 2006, employment in Greater Boston's life sciences industry has grown by 32%, but new lab construction has not kept up with demand. This best-in-class suburban life sciences campus with urban amenities will meet that demand.”

The booming biotech market in Greater Boston and Cambridge has sparked demand in areas such as Waltham-Lexington where tenants can save nearly $30-a-square-foot as compared to asking rents in East Cambridge for example. While there's been a 178% increase in laboratory inventory since 2004 in the Lexington-Waltham market, lab vacancy since that time has dropped from 34% to 0.7% at the end of first quarter 2017, Transwestern states.

“Waltham and Lexington, given their proximity to Cambridge and the region's major highways, have become the center of life sciences in the Greater Boston suburbs,” says TCG's Smith. “The suburbs have begun feeling the pinch of constraint in laboratory space that has been an issue for Cambridge. King Street Properties is addressing this demand with 828 Winter St., which will appeal to life sciences users that are looking to either establish or expand in the market.”

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. provided debt financing services for the construction of 828 Winter St. The project team includes architect Perkins+Will and general contractor BW Kennedy & Co.