Margulies & Associates Inc., a locally based architecture and interior design firm, was retained by Columbia Construction Co., the facility's builder, on behalf of the Diagnostics Division of Bayer HealthCare to design the new office and lab space. A spokesperson for Margulies tells GlobeSt.com that Bayer is relocating to provide the healthcare company with the opportunity to design its own space. The building is owned by Maric Inc.

"The new space will provide us with tremendous improvements in efficiency and flexibility," says Michael Porreca at Bayer HealthCare's Diagnostics Division. The new space will be evenly distributed between two levels, and will include administrative offices, laboratory space and support areas. The company plans to be in its new location by November 2004.

The building was previously occupied by Software Spectrum Inc., a subsidiary of Broomfield, CO-based Level 3 Communications Inc. The move puts Bayer closer to its other two local facilities, in Norwood Park South and in Walpole.

The deal is a positive one in a market that still has 26% availability rate and an annual negative absorption for last year of 542,397 sf, according to Spaulding & Slye Colliers' most recent statistics. In the fourth quarter of 2003 alone the area had a negative absorption of 86,656 sf. Lease rates for this deal were not available, but the average asking rent for office space in the area is about $20 per sf.