Boston | September 13, 2019 | By Catherine Carlock – Real Estate Editor, Boston Business Journal
_______________________________
Cambridge-based Syros Pharmaceuticals Inc. is expanding its headquarters in a move to Alewife from East Cambridge — an expansion that will give the biotech capacity to double its employee base.
Syros (Nasdaq: SYRS) has been located in Kendall Square for four years, and currently occupies about 16,000 square feet at 620 Memorial Drive. This November, it will move to 52,686 square feet at 35 Cambridge Park Drive, which is part of The Davis Cos.’s Alewife Research Center.
CEO Nancy Simonian said the company, which currently has 80 employees, is bursting at the seams at the Memorial Drive office. The company surveyed its employees, and searched for new space in Cambridge, Waltham and Boston.
“We really wanted to look for a place that would accommodate the best interests of our employees,” Simonian said.
Syros is the latest biotech to be squeezed out of East Cambridge, which itself has close to zero vacancy for lab space. Indeed, its future neighbors in the 35 Cambridge Park Drive facility — Codiak BioSciences and Glympse Bio — also moved out of Kendall Square to West Cambridge.
“There is a little bit of a donut hole in Kendall, particularly where you can get really small space or really large space,” Simonian said. “Where we were, in between, it was really difficult to find that kind of space.”
Indeed, CFO Joseph Ferra said it “seemed almost impossible” to find the footprint Syros needed in Kendall Square or East Cambridge. The facility at 35 Cambridge Park Drive, however, comes at much less of a premium than space closer into Cambridge’s urban core — some $67.50 per square foot at 35 Cambridge Park Drive versus in the $90s and even $100s per square foot in Kendall, Ferra said.
Boston-based architecture firm TRIA designed the space, which is all on one floor. The Richmond Group is building the office, said Sandy Redd, Syros’ senior facilities manager.
Syros will move to Alewife in mid-November.
