Image courtesy of Perkins + Will
A speculative Waltham lab development attracted a 98,500 square-foot lease by a publicly-traded Bedford biotech.
Stoke Therapeutics will pay $85.5 million in aggregate base rent over the term of the lease at 245 Fifth Ave., which runs through 2038, according to an SEC filing.
The firm will relocate from Bedford in late 2026, according to the Boston Business Journal which first reported the transaction.
Stoke Therapeutics, which is developing treatments for genetic diseases, raised $142 million in a 2019 IPO.
Developers Anchor Line Partners and Northwood Investors broke ground in 2021 on the 6-story, 277,000 square-foot development at 245 Fifth Ave. Dallas-based RBC Real Estate Capital Corp provided $277 million in financing.
The transaction gives a boost to the core suburban lab submarket of Waltham-Lexington, which had over 450,000 square feet of negative absorption during 2025 and ended the year with a 30.9 percent vacancy rate, according to CBRE. AstraZeneca is set to vacate its Waltham campus as it relocates its headquarters to Kendall Square in Cambridge.
The largest suburban Boston life science cluster, it includes nearly 11 million square feet of inventory.
Stoke Therapeutics is currently headquartered at 45 Wiggins Ave. in Bedford. The property was acquired in 2022 by Xenon Property of Fort Worth, Texas for $35.4 million.
