WALTHAM, MA—FORUM Pharmaceuticals Inc. has relocated operations from facilities in Watertown and Brighton to 112,500-square-feet of leased space at the former ADP building at 225 Second Ave. here.
The privately-held biopharmaceutical company signed a 10-year lease with an affiliate of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. of Pasadena, CA for the entirety of the redeveloped 225 Second Ave. building. Deborah Dunsire, M.D., president and CEO of FORUM Pharmaceuticals, says the company relocated operations officially on Monday to its new Waltham headquarters. A total of approximately 160 employees now work out of that facility. The company also maintains a small European office in The Netherlands.
Dr. Dunsire tells Globest.com that the deal was negotiated last year between the company and building owner Alexandria Real Estate Equities, which has since worked to convert the former ADP building into a state-of-the art office and research and development facility. The lease deal at 225 Second Ave., which includes a renewal option, was finalized in April 2014. The company began a search for new space in September 2013.
“They (Alexandria) completed stripped the building and refurbished it into a beautiful biotechnology space,” she says. The first floor of the property is laboratory space, with offices on the second and third floors. The office consolidation brings the company's consolidated drug discovery, development, and commercialization functions into the Waltham location.
“We are excited to be located under one roof in Waltham, as it facilitates daily interaction of our development and commercial teams with research scientists to drive continued innovation in FORUM's focused product pipeline that targets serious brain diseases such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia,” says Dr. Dunsire. “With our lead product candidate, encenicline, in two large Phase 3 clinical trials for schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, our genetically-targeted therapy, FRM-0334, in a Phase 2 trial for a genetic variant of frontotemporal dementia, as well as our robust drug discovery efforts, we need to plan for FORUM's future growth as we bring new medicines to patients. This state-of-the-art, custom designed facility is a critical next step in our advancement.”
The company moved out of offices at 500 Arsenal St. in Watertown and 1550 Soldiers Field Road in Brighton. Robert Richards, partner, Transwestern | RBJ represented FORUM Pharmaceuticals in the transaction. Alexandria Real Estate Equities was represented in-house by Thomas Andrews, executive vice president, and Dan Cordeau, vice president of leasing.
Dr. Dunsire says that the company's new headquarters affords it some space for future growth since FORUM expects to add more personnel as its various drugs geared to treat serious brain diseases progress in the approval process over the next two to three years. She also tells Globest.com that the company eventually has plans to go public.
The company, formerly EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., was founded in 2004. FORUM enters a rather tight office market in Waltham. According to Transwestern | RBJ, the 11.2-milllion-square-foot office market there sports a vacancy rate of 9.3%, while the 998,000-square-foot specialized laboratory sector in Waltham has a 7.5% vacancy rate at the close of the first quarter of this year.
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