BU Medical Center Leases 96,000 SF at BioSquare

BOSTON-The trustees of Boston University and Boston University Medical Center are leasing a total of 96,000 sf in 670 Albany St., an eight-story, 160,000-sf laboratory facility.

The building is being developed on a 42,000-sf site in BioSquare, the two-million-sf biomedical research and business park. Adjacent to BU Medical Center, the site is designed to support innovation in biomedical research and science and promote partnerships between academia and industry. The 14-acre campus is currently under development in the city’s South End. This building–the third lab and research building within the park–is scheduled to be completed in 2005. It will be built concurrently with a 1,400 car above-ground parking garage. With this deal, the building is now 60% pre-leased.

Spaulding & Slye Colliers represented property owner 670 Albany Street 2004 LLC in the transaction. Principal William P. Barrack, senior vice president and project director John C. Duffy, vice president John A. Osten, and assistant vice president Peter C. Bekarian acted as brokers. Boston University senior vice president Richard J. Towle, executive vice president of Boston Medical Center Paul Drew, Boston University assistant vice president for financial affairs Michael DiFabio, Boston University senior financial analyst Karen Cutone, and associate general counsel Steve A. Williams represented BioSquare in negotiations. The space on floors one through five will be used for institutional research and education/instructional purposes.

“These commitments are a great sign for Boston,” says Barrack. “We have strong interest in the balance of the building and future availabilities in the Park. BioSquare is important to the entire life sciences community while fueling growth in the Greater Boston economy.”

Currently, BioSquare consists of the 200,000-sf Center for Advanced Biomedical Research and the 192,000-sf Evans Biomedical Research Center as well as a 1,000-car parking garage with some office space. Its tenants include CombinatoRx Inc., Pulmatrix, NitroMed, Adipogenix and MassMedic. BioSquare also recently opened the BioSquare Discovery and Innovations Center, an incubator facility that focuses on the needs of start up biomedical research companies. Future plans include building the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories.