Facing unending competition from Cambridge and Route 128 West,Hub officials scored a rare victory on the life sciences front inconvincing BioDefense Corp. to take 32,500 sf at 12 Channel St.,bringing the company in to the Seaport District from Lexington.Besides praising the coordinated effort of the city, which owns 12Channel St. as part of its Marine Industrial Park, M&Gassociate Robert Kinlin calls the nine-story, 297,000-sf building"an excellent fit for BioDefense Corp. to expand its business." Thebiotech concern will have an extra 15,000 sf in the newheadquarters.

"Mayor Tom Menino and the Boston Redevelopment Authority havebeen terrific to work with from the start," says Kinlin, whorepresented BioDefense in partnership with M&G SVP JohnCarroll. Agencies involved from the city included the EconomicDevelopment & Industrial Corp. The 191-acre, 3.1-million-sfindustrial park is now 95% occupied by a diverse range ofcompanies, including Advanced Electronics, Harpoon Brewery,Northcoast Seafoods and the world headquarters of Au Bon Pain.

M&G's Boston brokerage group also handled renewals totaling56,000 sf at 101 Arch St. in the Financial District. The 21-story,407,000-sf office tower is owned by ING Clarion, which wasrepresented in the deals by Andrew Maher and Peter Conlin ofCBRE/New England. The largest of the renewals was the WorkersCompensation Rating and Inspection Bureau, which has just under23,000 sf. In addition, the Automobile Insurers Bureau committed tostay in 17,000 sf, while the Insurance Fraud Bureau renewed formore than 15,000 sf of space.