ROCKVILLE, MD-At the end of last year, Novavax inked one of 2011’s largest life sciences leases in the region, taking 74,209 square feet of laboratory, manufacturing and office space in two 53,000-square-foot lab and manufacturing facilities in Gaithersburg, MD. Now the vaccine maker is looking to sublease its local facility and has tasked the same broker to help it that it used to secure the Gaithersburg space: Scheer Partners.

The space in question is located at 9920 Belward Campus Dr., a two-story, 51,200-square-foot bio-manufacturing, R&D and office building here. Robert Scheer, Henry Bernstein and Matt Brady are handling the marketing of the space. San Diego-based BioMed Realty Trust owns the building.

The space is ideal for a mid-stage, growth-oriented life science company that needs small-scale bio manufacturing capabilities, Brady tells GlobeSt.com. That type of space is very limited in the local market, he adds. Asking rates for the sublease will be in the mid $20s per square foot but will most likely be determined on a case-by-case basis, Brady also says. “Much has to do with whether the building has to be broken up. There will be potential rental rate concessions for that versus someone who just wants to take one of the floors.”

The building’s features include cGMP pilot-scale biomanufacturing suite, lab space with metal casework and epoxy resin benches, lab services such as an autoclave and a glass wash, a central vacuum and central-compressed air systems and walk-in cold rooms. The building will be available in the first quarter of 2013.