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88 Black Falcon/Image courtesy of SGA
Asking rents for lab space are topping $116 per square foot in East Cambridge and approaching triple digits in Boston’s Seaport District, according to a brokerage research report.
With vacancies in the 13.3 million-square-foot East Cambridge submarket hovering below 1 percent, the average asking triple-net rent now stands at $116.69 per square foot, CBRE’s MarketView report states.
Boston’s Seaport District is catching up with Kendall Square as a favored address for life science companies, and developers are responding with a series of proposals to redevelop industrial parcels and retrofit office buildings for life science uses. Across the city, developers have 2.2 million square feet of lab space under construction, including five office-to-lab conversions totaling 756,000 square feet. Local life sciences companies have requirements for 2.2 million square feet of space, including 700,000 already committed.
Seaport District asking lab rents spiked 6 percent in the second quarter, hitting $94.81. The district’s vacancy rate fell to 1 percent and in some cases, companies are committing to spaces still in permitting. Ginkgo Bioworks signed a 150,000-square-foot lease with Marcus Partners for a proposed redevelopment of the Au Bon Pain headquarters in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park. And The Davis Cos. received approval in May to build a 327,000-square-foot addition containing R&D space at the 88 Black Falcon complex.
The report said the shortage of availabilities is likely to drive lab tenants with urgent occupancy timelines to suburban developments, where developers have launched a series of conversions of office parks.
