The building, owned by the Baltimore-based Preston Partners,islocated at 6480 Dobbin Rd. Adam Nachlas, formerly a senior vicepresident with Scheer Partners, who now works at Manekin, served asthe lead broker representing Martek. Bernstein says the lease is atestament to the growing activity in the biotech space--despite thecompany's Columbia locale. Martek "grew uphere" from its foundingin the 1990s, Bernstein says, and justcontinued to expand. Moretypically, though, biotech companies tend tofocus on the 270Corridor around Gaithersburg."There are a number of biotechcompanies in Howard County andColumbia, but they haven't been thebeneficiary of the speculative labspace that has been built up inGaithersburg," he says.

However, biotech activity even in Gaithersburg slowed duringtherecession--a slowdown that is starting to shake off, Bernsteinadds. "Iwould say there is about half a million square feet worthof deals inthe market that will land in 2010 and 2011," he says,includingtwo government mandates from the NIH and NCI.