The gritty counterpart to the Innovation District’s polished corporate facades, the Boston Marine Industrial Park is entering the next phase of its own tech transformation. Traditionally the home of seafood warehouses, ship repair yards and a home furnishings showplace, the 191-acre South Boston district has become a popular destination for tech and life science companies in recent years. Developers are mapping projects designed to reflect the changing user demand.
Atlanta-based Jamestown Properties is drawing up final plans for a three-year, $100-million overhaul of the 800,000-square-foot Bronstein Center and Boston Design Center, which it has renamed the Innovation and Design Building.
“We want to improve and reinforce the design industry that has been in the Seaport for years,” said Michael Phillips, chief operating officer of Jamestown. “In addition, we think the new innovation uses that have come into the Seaport that are growing jobs are a good fit.”
Jamestown also wants to add ground-level retail and food venues in a neighborhood where dining options are scarce.
“It’s a destination experience that’s about tenancies that support the industries that are down there,” Phillips said.
Jamestown bought the lease rights for the Boston Design Center at 17-19 Drydock Ave. and the Bronstein Center at 23-25 Drydock Ave. last year for $72.1 million from Millennium Partners. The centers are part of a three-block-long edifice owned by the city since the military left the area in the 1970s.
Jamestown isn’t the only developer betting on the neighborhood.
Kavanagh Advisory Group of Danvers hopes to break ground later this year on 130,000 square feet of speculative lab space at the corner of Northern Avenue and Tide Street, in what would be the first phase of a 360,000-square-foot life science complex called Innovation Square at Northern Avenue. Avison Young, the leasing agent, is recruiting tenants with triple-net rents in the low $40s per square foot, compared with mid-$50s in Cambridge.
And by June 1, the influential MassChallenge incubator will relocate from a 4-year-old office tower on the Fan Pier to the Jamestown property, in a symbolic vote of confidence for the area’s future as a tech hub. MassChallenge sponsors an annual tech accelerator program for 128 start-ups that compete for $1.5 million in awards.
Life science companies first landed in the area in 2003, when Immunetics relocated from Cambridge and expanded at 23 Drydock Ave. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute leased 49,000 square feet for office and research space in 2007 and broke ground last year on a new cancer imaging center.
Dozens of smaller companies leased space at 27 Drydock in 2010, which is separately leased to property manager North Star of Boston. When North Star took over as building manager 12 years ago, rents were in the sub-$10 range and 50 percent of the building was vacant, said Jeff Wallace, North Star asset manager. Today, just 7,600 square feet is available for lease.
North Star has spent more than $10 million in the last 12 years upgrading the building including new shared lab and office space, lunchrooms and conference rooms.
Clean Slate
The Drydock buildings offer a blank slate for early-stage companies looking for flexible commercial space, said Martina Toponarski, Life Sciences and High Tech Sector Manager for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Because zoning allows both research and manufacturing uses, start-ups don’t have to relocate when they bring products to market, Topanarski said. Other draws are the building-length rows of loading docks and proximity to marine shipping facilities on the waterfront.
Mass transit upgrades also played a role in making the neighborhood more attractive to tenants that rely on a younger, carless workforce. In 2005, the MBTA activated its new Silver Line bus route, which takes passengers from South Station to the Marine Industrial Park in 14 minutes on public streets and a dedicated tunnel.
A new private express shuttle bus from South Station to the Jamestown complex was scheduled to start up on March 1. Two Hubway bicycle sharing stations will be installed on Drydock Avenue this spring, and a nearby commuter ferry stop is a goal, Jamestown’s Phillips said.
In contrast with 27 Drydock’s tight vacancy rate, the Bronstein and Design Centers have plenty of room for more tenants, with vacancies of 53 and 20 percent respectively, according to Jamestown.
Detailed plans for the renovation will be filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority this spring, Phillips said. The 1930s-era buildings are in serious disrepair and need new windows, lobbies, mechanical systems and masonry repairs, Phillips said, and parking lots and loading docks will be redesigned. More meeting rooms, classroom space and designer lounges in the Design Center are envisioned, along with rooftop gardens or a greenhouse.
Massachusetts maritime laws also limit development in the neighborhood. Except for six small parcels, the entire industrial park is subject to state Chapter 91 regulations, which preserve public access to shoreline properties. About 57 percent of the park is zoned for maritime uses such as ship repair, cargo handling and seafood processing. The rest of the area permits broader uses, including office and lab space, although specific new uses such as retail need state approval.
As the neighborhood evolves, the Boston Redevelopment Authority is updating its blueprint for the Marine Industrial Park. In February, the agency advertised for consultants to submit requests for proposals on a new master plan for the neighborhood. The document, last updated in 1999, will outline desired future land uses.
“The substantive question is: can marine uses be sympathetically located next to other kinds of uses? And our building is proof that they can and should,” Wallace said.
Maximizing mass transit connections and neighborhood amenities such as housing and public spaces will be key to the neighborhood’s ability to compete with innovation hubs such as Cambridge, said Karen McShea, a senior vice president at Avison Young.
“If you look at Kendall Square as our competition, making sure that they have that sense of community will be one of the most important criteria as (companies) make those comparisons, not only locally but internationally,” McShea said.
Email: sadams@thewarrengroup.com
