Foundation Medicine Signs 580K Lease in Boston Seaport

BOSTON—Biomedical firm Foundation Medicine has signed a lease for 580,000 square feet and will occupy all of the office and laboratory space at the 400 Summer St. building to be developed by the joint venture of WS Development and PSP Investments.

The transaction is the largest life science lease signed in the City of Boston since 2011.

400 Summer St. is a 16-story laboratory building that is part of WS Development’s 23-acre Boston Seaport development that is designed by Morris Adjmi Architects of New York City in collaboration with the Boston office of Stantec.

The 625,000- square foot building once completed will also host 30,000 square feet of neighborhood retail uses.

“We are honored that Foundation Medicine has chosen 400 Summer Street for their headquarters,” says Jeremy Sclar, president of WS Development. “Boston’s Seaport has come to serve as the city’s hub for forward-thinking employers, residents, and retailers, and now as a global hub of the life sciences sector. No company better represents the power of innovation than Foundation Medicine and we are proud to welcome them to our neighborhood.”

Foundation Medicine is currently headquartered at 150 Second St. in Cambridge, MA.

The project will also involve the construction of a grand public stair connecting Summer and Congress streets designed by James Corner Field Operations, the landscape architect behind New York’s High Line. This major public space will provide direct pedestrian and bicycle connectivity from the Summer Street bridge directly to Boston Harbor as the southern gateway to Harbor Way, the one-third of a mile linear park being constructed by WS Development as part of the Boston Seaport project.

WS Development expects the project to start construction later this year and be occupied by 2023. The Chestnut Hill, MA-based developer and owner has more than 20 million square feet of existing space and an additional 5 million square feet under development.

Foundation Medicine is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patient’s unique cancer. The company offers a full suite of comprehensive genomic profiling assays to identify the molecular alterations in a patient’s cancer and match them with relevant targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials.

The development of 400 Summer St. will result in approximately $5 million in funding dedicated to the creation of affordable housing in Boston, as well as $1 million earmarked for job training in the City of Boston.