King Street Properties' Allston Labworks development is underway on a site to the left of this image of 287 Western Ave. in Boston's Allston neighborhood. Photo courtesy of Google Maps
Its multi-building Allston Labworks development hasn’t even topped out its last building and already life science developer King Street Properties says it wants to add more lab space next door.
The company filed a letter of intent with Boston Planning & Development Agency officials Thursday to build 90,000 square feet of office and lab space at 287 Western Ave.
The 56,000-square-foot parcel is next to Labworks’ 263,000-square-foot office-lab block at 305 Western Ave. and across the street from Labworks’ 35-unit 280 Western Ave. apartment building and Labworks’ final building, the 272,000-square-foot office-lab 250 Western Ave.
Currently, 287 Western Ave. is home to a vacant commercial building, surface parking and garage space for Boston’s EMS department. According to city property records, Harvard University owns the two properties that make up the development site.
While a formal project filing is anticipated this summer, King Street’s letter states it plans to fill 287 Western Ave. with small, pre-built suites designed for early-stage biotech companies, compared to the large-floorplate spaces currently on offer at the under-construction Labworks buildings.
The new project will also include a replacement ambulance bay for Boston EMS and a public courtyard.
According to Newmark research, the average asking rent for class A life science space in the Route 128 West submarket, which includes Watertown and Boston’s Brighton neighborhood, sat at $74.52 per square foot in the first quarter of 2023, and the vacancy rate sat at a mere 6.6 percent following nearly 160,000 square feet of positive absorption that quarter even as the broader regional life science real estate market saw increasing vacancies and declining rents. The “urban edge” market, where Newmark puts Allston, Somerville and similarly-situated neighborhoods, saw a vacancy rate of 17.3 percent, plus 42,811 square feet of positive absorption and an average class A asking rent of $82.83 per square foot.
