75 Hayden Ave. Image courtesy of King Street Properties

Pursuing lab users continues to be an effective strategy for suburban Boston developers in early 2020, as life science tenants comprised a majority of space commitments in the first quarter.

Lab leases made up 52 percent of the suburbs’ absorption rate, with activity clustered in the expanding Lexington-Waltham market, according to research by Colliers International in Boston.

Along with rents that average approximately half that of industry epicenter Kendall Square, the Route 128/Mass Pike market provides options for biotech and pharmaceutical companies that need to occupy space in a timely fashion, said Aaron Jodka, Colliers’ managing director of research and client services.

“So many of these tenants are receiving venture capital funding and have an immediate need, which means you have to have the space purpose-built and ready to go,” Jodka said.

Lab tenants comprised 31 percent of suburban absorption in 2018 and 58 percent in 2019, according to Colliers research.

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, which relocated its headquarters from West Cambridge to Lexington in 2014, opted to expand in the suburbs with a 61,000-square-foot lease at 75 Hayden Ave. in February.

The 2 million-square-foot Route 128/Massachusetts Turnpike lab submarket had nearly 126,000 square feet of absorption in the first quarter, the highest of any Greater Boston submarket. The lab vacancy rate ranged from 12 percent in the suburbs to 7.8 percent in Boston and 2.2 percent in Cambridge at the end of the first quarter.

Developers including BioMed Realty, Related Beal and King Street Properties are all offering “plug-and-play” lab suites to accommodate life science companies that need space for expansion in the short term while avoiding sizeable tenant buildout costs.