Codiak BioSciences and Glympse Bio are expanding from their Kendall Square homes into West Cambridge’s Alewife Research Center, bringing the 223,000-square-foot laboratory developed by Boston-based The Davis Cos. to full occupancy.
The facility is located at 35 CambridgePark Drive near the former Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) campus and the MBTA Red Line Alewife station. Other tenants include Eisai Co. Ltd., the Japanese pharmaceutical development partner of Cambridge-based Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB); genetic expression biotech Syros Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: SRYS); and Ribon Therapeutics, a biotech developing a lung cancer treatment that recently closed a $65 million Series B funding round.
MIT spinout Glympse Bio will expand out of the LabCentral biotech incubator at 700 Main St. in Kendall Square into a 22,712-square-foot facility at the ARC.
“With our successful Series A financing of $22 million co-led by LS Polaris Innovation Fund and ARCH Ventures, as well as multiple research collaborations with pharmaceutical companies, it became extremely important for us to identify a new building for our fast-growing and talented team,” said Caroline J. Loew, president and CEO of Glympse Bio, in a statement. “In moving to the ARC and West Cambridge, we’ll have continued access to the talent and ecosystem that are so critical to the success of our science and our ability to make a difference to patients’ lives.”
Codiak Biosciences is currently located on the ninth floor of 500 Technology Square, part of Alexandria Real Estate Equities’ (NYSE: ARE) Technology Square. The exosome therapeutics company will lease 68,258 square feet at the ARC. A company representative declined to comment on whether the company plans to keep its Kendall Square office open.
The leases come at a time when lab space in Kendall Square, the white-hot center of the biotechnology universe, remains near record lows. Indeed, a recent report from real-estate brokerage Hunneman said “Cambridge lab vacancies are non-existent” and vacancy rates in East Cambridge had fallen to zero percent in the first quarter.
“If you thought lab vacancies couldn’t get any tighter in East Cambridge, you’d be wrong,” the report said. “With few options, tenant demand has been focused on new construction or recently completed lab space.”
The Davis Cos. broke ground on the ARC in February 2017. The building was designed to include a grand lobby with a two-story atrium, flexible R&D and lab space, an employee lounge and variety of seating areas, fitness room with showers and lockers, and a bike room. Spagnolo Gisness & Associates was the ARC’s architect, and John Moriarty & Associates was the builder.
“Our Alewife projects give tenants the newest, best-in-class laboratory space with incredible Red Line proximity, a convenient location for both urban and suburban employees and immediate access to numerous bike trails,” said Duncan Gilkey, senior vice president of The Davis Cos., in a statement. “It has been a great project and we are proud of our tenant base.”
John Carroll, Evan Gallagher and Curtis Cole of Colliers International represented Codiak and Glympse, while Ryan Webber, Mark Winters and Juliette Reiter of Newmark Knight Frank represented The Davis Cos. in the lease deal.
