BOSTON—The greater Boston area and particularly Cambridge has seen tremendous sales and leasing activity from healthcare and biotech related firms of late. A panel of experts at last week's RealShare Boston conference expect interest from these sectors to remain high for the foreseeable future.

The reasons for the bullish outlook continue to be the fact that biotech and life science related companies are attracted to Cambridge and greater Boston due to the strong higher educational institutions in the area and its diverse and qualified workforce.

The Biotech Real Estate Boom panel that was part of the RealShare Boston event held at the Omni Parker House included William Harris, regional leader, science and technology for Perkins + Will; Philip Plottel, senior director, global real estate and facilities for ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Seth Taylor, CFO and CBO, Mass Innovation Labs and moderator Angus G. McQuilken, vice president for communications and marketing for the Massachusetts Life Science Center.

Harris, who designs spaces for life sciences companies and property developers for architectural firm Perkins + Will, related that large pharmaceutical firms are beating out smaller life science companies for space in Cambridge. “The big pharma companies with very good credentials and good credit will make quick deals with developers and so they are gobbling up space in large proportions,” he said.

Harris said a positive trend for the Cambridge economy is that these large pharmaceutical firms, such as Baxter International, which announced it was establishing an R&D center at Kendall Square in Cambridge last year, is forming partnerships with local biotech-related companies, which only adds to the positive synergy that exists in the biotech-health care sectors in Cambridge at the moment.

Plottel of ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, which has its new corporate headquarters under construction in Kendall Square at Alexandria Real Estate Equities' 75/125 Binney St. complex, said that the emergence of large pharmaceutical companies, including home-grown firms, that require large blocks of space has resulted in the biopharma market being much larger and having a much greater economic impact on Cambridge. Plottel and Harris agreed that a recent trend in the biotech sector is the switch from the larger firms to requiring more office than laboratory space than in the past.

Taylor said that the Boston/Cambridge market offers large biotech and pharmaceutical companies the diverse workforce the industry requires. In addition, with the introduction of new pharmaceutical companies to the region, the Cambridge workforce only gets more diverse, stronger and creates an even more attractive biotech marketplace.

“I think just this year we (Cambridge) passed San Francisco in VC (venture capital) money flowing into early stage companies,” Taylor said.

All of the panelists believe that because of the ongoing need for health care research to find cures for various diseases and ailments, the growth in the biotech and biopharma sectors is sustainable, especially considering many foreign firms are flocking to the United States to secure capital for their various programs.

They said that there is no question that Cambridge and Boston are very well positioned to meet the demand for growth in these sectors, although merger and acquisition activity in the sector could dampen some growth.

Massachusetts Life Sciences Center's McQuilken notes that despite the plethora of large deals in Cambridge of late, there are still a good amount of requirements seeking large blocks of space in the Cambridge area. Panelists agreed that companies looking for 200,000 square feet or more in Cambridge currently have few options.

“There is still substantial demand for large blocks of space in Cambridge and some of them may not be accommodated in Cambridge,” he said. The question for the region is will pharmaceutical and biotech firms locate in Cambridge or decide to go to other areas in Greater Boston?”