Image courtesy of Elkus Manfredi Architects
A 500,000-square-foot life science tower under construction in the Fenway has serious interest from tenants for 84 percent of the building just three months after its acquisition by Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
The 14-story tower at 201 Brookline Ave. originally developed by Boston-based Samuels & Assoc. broke ground in 2020 following a 65,000-square-foot lease by Cambridge-based Tango Therapeutics and 24,000-square-foot lease by Boston-based Third Rock Ventures.
The building occupies a portion of the 401 Park Drive property acquired by Alexandria in February for $1.5 billion. Alexandria said at the time it will propose an additional 400,000 lab building on the property and plans to convert another 221,000 square feet at 401 Park Drive, previously known as the Landmark Center, into lab space.
Alexandria now has letters of intent from companies for 84 percent of the building, Chief Operating Officer Steve Richardson said in a conference call to discuss the life science REIT’s first-quarter earnings Tuesday.
“The response by the market to our Fenway transaction and 201 Brookline has been remarkable,” Richardson said. “This is a testament to the trust companies have in our best-in-class brand, as these opportunities came to 201 Brookline in large part because of Alexandria.”
CEO Joel Marcus said Alexandria has eyed the Fenway as a natural extension of the life science clusters in Cambridge and Longwood Medical Area.
Alexandria executives said they are planning a “megacampus” in Watertown following last week’s acquisition of the 18-acre Watertown Mall property. The property is across Arsenal Street from Alexandria’s 760,000-square-foot Arsenal on the Charles campus, where it’s proposing two additional lab buildings. They declined to discuss specifics of the redevelopment plan for the property, which contains an enclosed mall portion and big-box anchors Best Buy and Target.
“What you’re looking at is kind of a megacampus in Watertown. We’re seeing some great R&D continuing to favor that market,” Marcus said.
In Norwood, Alexandria is planning to propose an additional 350,000 square feet of biomanufacturing at One Investors Way in Norwood, which it acquired this month for $105 million. The property is next to Moderna’s 200,000-square-foot biomanufacturing facility which opened in 2018 and is being used to produce its COVID-19 vaccine, but the company now is looking for expansion capacity.
“[COVID-19] is likely to be like the flu, where you’re going to have to get boosters on a fairly regular basis,” Marcus said. “So this is really part of their strategic plan to be able to supply both the United States and parts of the world with much needed vaccines now and into the future.”
