Image courtesy of Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is offering its newly-completed Boston Seaport lab complex for sublease as it shrinks its real estate portfolio to reduce expenses.
The synthetic biology company dropped immediate plans to occupy Marcus Partners’ Foundry at Drydock development, where it leased 260,000 square feet for a new office and lab complex including its Biofab1 research facility that was scheduled to open in early 2025.
“We’re staying in our current site rather than moving into BioFab1. We could get into BioFab1 in the future as we expand our business. I hope we do,” CEO Jason Kelly said during the company’s third-quarter earnings presentation. “And in the meantime, there are a few of the floors that are available for sublease.”
Ginkgo Bioworks has been cutting expenses and laying off employees after a series of financial setbacks. A restructuring plan approved last spring reduces the workforce by at least 35 percent and consolidates Ginkgo Bioworks’ real estate footprint, which includes a large presence in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park and a pair of research facilities in West Cambridge.
The company’s decision adds to the pullback in the Boston Seaport life science market, one of the nation’s top growth areas just two years ago. When Gingko Bioworks signed its initial lease with Marcus Partners in early 2021, the developer hadn’t even submitted its detailed project plans to the city of Boston, and lab vacancies were in the low single digits.
The 5.8 million-square-foot Seaport lab submarket now has a 31 percent vacancy rate, according to CBRE, with nearly 270,000 square feet of negative absorption year-to-date.
Ginkgo Bioworks is headquartered nearby at Related Beal’s 27 Drydock Ave.
It signed on as anchor for developer Marcus Partners’ Foundry development in 2021, shortly after going public in an IPO valuing the company at $15 billion. Ginkgo Bioworks initially leased 150,000 square feet, before expanding its commitment to 260,000 square feet. Construction started in spring 2022.
The complex is located on parcels O and P owned by the Economic Development and Industrial Corp. of Boston. The property previously was occupied by the Au Bon Pain headquarters and bakery.
The 15-year lease at The Foundry began in April, and Ginkgo Bioworks expects to occupy the building by mid-2025, according to its quarterly report. But the company is “not reasonably certain” to exercise a 10-year lease extension option for the property, the filing states.
The lease has a base rent of $21.1 million in its initial year.
In 2020, Ginkgo Bioworks expanded into West Cambridge’s Quadrangle with a nearly 39,000-square-foot lease at 10 Wilson Road and nearly 25,000 square feet at 45 Moulton St.
The company also plans to exit those facilities by the end of this month, Kelly said during the conference call.
