Astellas Pharma’s 63,000-square-foot lease at Cambridge Crossing’s 441 Morgan Ave. was the largest local lab lease of the third quarter. Image courtesy of Ennead and Jacobs Consultants
As life science companies retreat to established industry clusters in 2023, a new East Cambridge project landed a 62,000-square-foot lease for a new office, lab and incubator space.
Astellas Pharma will occupy two floors in the 441 Morgan Ave. facility at Cambridge Crossing beginning in 2024. Astella’s Discovery Accelerator will be occupied by the company’s Mitobridge platform, currently based at 1030 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, and outside collaborators, the company announced.
Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma said several hundred employees in its medical and development and business development and research departments will be located at 441 Morgan Ave., a 10-story, 375,000-square-foot development.
“This investment in Cambridge represents a significant milestone for Astellas, enabling us to continue growing our presence in the Greater Boston area and to create additional hubs for innovation and collaboration,” Astellas Chief Medical Officer Tadaaki Taniguchi said in a statement.
In 2020, the Astellas Institute of Regenerative Medicine opened a 262,000-square-foot research facility at 9 Technology Drive in Westborough.
The Morgan Avenue lease is the second-largest of 2023 for the lab sector in Greater Boston, after Orbital Therapetics’ sublease of 166,000 square feet at 100 Binney St. in Cambridge, according to CBRE research.
The 441 Morgan development, the fifth life science building at Cambridge Crossing, broke ground in mid-2021 and is scheduled for completion next year. Philips North America, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cerevel Therapeutics and Sanofi previously signed lab leases at the 43-acre mixed-use development on the Boston, Cambridge and Somerville border developed by DivcoWest.
Life science leasing has slowed significantly in the past year amid declines in venture capital investment, however. Cambridge’s life science market had over 192,000 square feet of negative absorption during the second quarter, according to CBRE research, and asking rents declined 2.6 percent to $113.42 per square foot on a triple-net basis. The availability rate hit 17.2 percent, while vacancies rose to 4.1 percent.
But East Cambridge remains the strongest submarket in the city, with 111,489 square feet of positive absorption since January and a 11.4 percent availability rate at the end of the second quarter, CBRE reported.
