Biogen Renews 56,136 SF Lease

CAMBRIDGE, MA-Biogen Inc. has renewed its lease on 56,136 sf of space at 4 Cambridge Center. Spaulding & Slye Colliers principal Debra J. Gould and assistant vice president Damian Szary represented owner SSR Realty Advisors Inc. in the transaction while Biogen was represented by principals Joe Fallon and Mike Brown of Trammell Crow Co.

Biogen, a global biotech company headquartered here, currently occupies the fifth through the 12th floor of this 198,295-sf, 12-story building. This transaction is a renewal of Biogen’s lease on a portion of the space it occupies in the building.

The property is located in Kendall Square and is nearly fully leased to tenants including Medlen & Carroll, Tibco Software and Lexicon. It is part of a 1.5 million-sf multi-use complex whose tenants include a Marriott hotel, Legal Sea Foods and The Harvard Co-op.

The lease rate was not disclosed but according to Spaulding & Slye Colliers’ third quarter statistics for the year the average asking rent for Cambridge was $32.94 per sf. This includes both the office and biotech market, which have had very different experiences in the recent recession. While rents have dropped as vacancies have risen in the office market the biotech market remains strong with low vacancy rates. But local brokers have been predicting that as the funding dries up for new biotech companies, the market could be in for a bumpier ride.