Biotech Firm Significantly Expands Operations in Seaport

Innovation and Design Building, Boston

BOSTON— Ginkgo Bioworks is moving its state of the art light lab facility to nearly 70,000 square feet at Jamestown ‘s Innovation and Design Building in the Marine Industrial Park in the Seaport District. The long-term lease for 69,439 square feet of space at the Innovation and Design Building, located at 21-25 Drydock Ave. and 1 Design Center Place will not require the movers to fill up the gas tanks. The firm is currently housed in approximately 18,000 square feet at the adjacent 27 Drydock Ave. The 10-year lease deal at the 1.4 million-square-foot, mixed-use Innovation and Design Building quadruples its presence in the Seaport District, according to JLL , which represented Jamestown, the building owner, in the deal. Ginkgo Bioworks, which built the world’s first organism engineering foundry in its existing facility, is a fast growing company that last July secured $45 million in Series B round of funding. The new space at the IDB will help house the company’s growing operations as well as provide space for its future growth, JLL notes. Michael Phillips , president of Jamestown, says that the addition of Ginkgo Bioworks to its Seaport complex “reinforces our success of incubating start-ups at the IDB. This is an example of what has been central to our management plan, allowing tenants to come in and fully utilize the large spaces at the IDB, with the opportunity for vertical and horizontal expansion across 180,000 square feet per floor plate.” JLL managing director Ben Heller , EVP Ryan Enright and SVPs Kelly Lockberg and Molly Heath represented Jamestown in the deal. Anne Columbia and Patrick Downey of Columbia Realty handled lease negotiations for Ginkgo Bioworks. Heller credits Jamestown’s vision for creating at the IDB “a hub of innovation” that has attracted firms such as Ginkgo Bioworks and others that have helped transform the property into “a go-to location for the creative, urban manufacturing and entrepreneurial community” in Boston. Ginkgo Bioworks joins a tenant roster that includes Autodesk, MassChallenge, Elkus Manfredi Architects, Design Communications Ltd., BOC International and Boston Beer.