City Claims Success as Biotech Firm Lured From Cambridge

The deal is being touted by the city as a success story in its recent effort to attract bio-manufacturing and life sciences to Boston. Immunetics is the first bio-manufacturing firm to move to the industrial park.

The company is taking space in a former munitions factory and has options to expand. The city anticipates that its new focus on bio-manufacturing industries will mean that additional firms will relocate to Boston.

"Our primary objective was to find a facility that allowed for economical build-out of a larger lab for both research and development and manufacturing," says Andrew E. Levin, Ph.D., Immunetics founder and CEO. "Early on in our search we recognized the opportunity at Drydock Center to establish a new and cost-effective facility in a rapidly developing area."

Part of the park's attraction for the company was its central location and proximity to downtown Boston. The Boston Redevelopment Authority, which owns and operates the park, also worked out a financing program that provides resources for companies to fund build-out for specialized industrial businesses. The new loan fund was designed by the BRA's Boston Local Development Corporation and aims to attract manufacturing and industrial businesses to the park, where space is currently available for lease.

The one million dollar fund will provide loans to qualified master lessees at the park ranging from $125,000 to a maximum of $500,000, depending on the size of the space, for tenants, who will also be required to provide a matching amount toward build-out costs. The city says the new loan fund, which is a component of the city Mayor Thomas M. Menino's Back Streets initiative, fits in with its ongoing efforts to grow the bio-manufacturing, medical device, and life sciences industry in Boston.