Biotech Blooms In 'Burbs
Genzyme is planning to build a water-purfying facility at its site in Framingham — to the tune of $83 million — to purify materials used in production of Fabrazyme, a drug for those with the genetic condition Fabry disease.
Boston Biomedical Associates recently announced it will move its 52 workers to 100 Crowley Dr., a building owned by Jon Delli Priscoli, left.
Peter Abair, with the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, said biopharmaceutical space in the state grew by 4 million square feet over the past five years.
Jon Delli Priscoli looked to Cambridge for inspiration as he sought to make his mark in MetroWest.
The CEO of First Colony Development toured several biotechnology buildings in Kendall Square prior to designing his new 100,000-square-foot building for high tech and life science firms in Marlborough.
From the red brick exterior with glass covers to the expansive art deco lobby with blonde maple and stainless steel to the open granite and steel stairway, 100 Crowley Dr. was intended to feel like Cambridge.
And that's a good thing, since rising rents and the need for additional space often drive emerging biotechnology companies out of Greater Boston.
“For better or for worse, there's only so much space in Cambridge,” said Rachel LeBlanc, Worcester Polytechnic Institute's director of corporate and professional education, which works with life sciences companies in the region.
Startup research companies often prefer setting up in college towns like Cambridge to have the best access to prospective talent, said Peter Abair, director of economic development and global affairs for the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio).
As these companies mature and elevate their reputations, they often pack their bags and move to suburban areas like MetroWest, Abair said, where space is cheaper.
Office space in a biotechnology hub like Marlborough costs just 40 percent of what it costs to rent similar digs in Cambridge, said Garry Holmes, president of R.W. Holmes, a Wayland-based commercial real estate firm. Even space in a suburb slightly closer to Boston — such as Framingham — would cost $10 to $12 more per square foot than in Marlborough, Priscoli said.
The presence of so many other life sciences firms also sends the message to prospective businesses that the MetroWest area has a sufficiently talented workforce, Abair said.
“Once you start to get momentum, word gets out and you see more action in a particular sector,” Holmes said. “Activity begets more activity.”
And no region has seen more activity in recent years than MetroWest, experts said.
Employment in Massachusetts's life sciences industry grew 27.3 percent between 2001 and 2011, the most of any state, according to a March 2013 report by Northeastern University's Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy.
Meanwhile, within the Bay State, life sciences fared better over the past decade than all other industries, while the commonwealth's total employment shrunk by 4 percent, the Northeastern researchers found.
Over the past five years, the biopharmaceutical industry has expanded its Bay State footprint from 16 million square feet of lab space to 20 million square feet, Abair said. The state was home to 1,039 life sciences companies in 2012, MassBio found, with more than 500 of them in the medical device sector.
Marlborough has been at the epicenter of MetroWest's biotechnology bonanza, welcoming nine new life sciences companies between 2011 and 2014, according to the Marlborough Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The city of 39,000 is now home to 29 life sciences firms, the MEDC said, comprising 10 to 20 percent of Marlborough's businesses.
But success stories aren't confined to within Marlborough.
Expansions In Framingham, Hopkinton
Genzyme plans to build an $83-million facility in Framingham to purify the materials produced at its nearby Fabrazyme plant, which makes drugs to treat people with Fabry disease, a genetic disorder that results from the buildup of a particular type of fat, said spokeswoman Lori Gorski. The presence of a wastewater pumping station installed along New York Avenue in 2008 by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) made the expansion feasible, Gorski said.
Meanwhile, PerkinElmer is growing its Massachusetts headcount by 75 this year and completed a 60,000-square-foot expansion to its Hopkinton campus in late October, according to spokeswoman Fara Goldberg. The new space will serve as the company's main research center for human health issues, and will include art lab facilities, a clean room and a warehouse.
And HeartWare will be upgrading this winter from 27,000 square feet of space in two Framingham buildings to a 58,000-square-foot building less than a half-mile away. It's the third time since 2006 that the company has needed to relocate into larger digs, according to company president and CEO Doug Godshall.
“We keep thinking we have enough space, and then we run out of space 18 months later,” Godshall said.
HeartWare's Framingham-based workforce has grown from 10 employees in 2010 to 100 today, Godshall said, with plans for rapid growth over the next six months. The heart disease technology company also employs 400 mechanical engineers and production workers in Florida, Godshall said.
Godshall was supposed to be HeartWare's only Massachusetts-based employee when he took the reins in 2006, but the company soon had trouble finding elite sales professionals and electrical engineers in Florida and changed course.
“The caliber and quantity of medical device experience was of much higher quality in Massachusetts,” he said.
Biomanufacturing Boost
But biotechnology isn't only about providing jobs to scientists in white lab coats, said Angus McQuilken, the MLSC's vice president for marketing and communications.
Small boutique biomanufacturing firms have begun to relocate from North Carolina to the Bay State, said Kevin O'Sullivan, president and CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives in Worcester. Many biomanufacturing jobs are well-suited for people with only an associate's degree, vocational training or a high school diploma, O'Sullivan said. For example, according to the Northeastern study, nearly a quarter of new life sciences hires in 2010 from firms that had received public money held less than a bachelor's degree.
Much of the biotechnology industry's growth has been fueled by the public sector, with the commonwealth pledging to invest $1 billion in the life sciences between 2008 and 2018.
Since 2008, the MLSC has given out $7.1 million in tax incentives, $3.4 million in loans, $685,000 in internship stipends and $500,000 in matching grants to biotechnology firms in MetroWest, according to the center.
Small life sciences firms have trouble attracting investors since venture capitalists typically want a quicker return than nascent companies can provide due to the lag time between initial research and final product approvals, the Northeastern study found. Therefore, the firms rely on MLSC investments to get off the ground, the researchers said.
That takes on added importance in sectors such as biotechnology, where large firms typically monitor startups that are developing potential blockbuster drugs or devices and seek to acquire them, the study said. Most large companies seek to be in close proximity to a cluster of small firms so they can be the first to swoop in and make a bid for the most promising companies.
“The large, globally important life sciences firms want to feed in the waters where the minnows are swimming,” Northeastern professors Barry Bluestone and Alan Clayton-Matthews wrote.
And startup companies look to locate near academic laboratories to have access to production equipment at low costs, said Kamal Rashid, director of WPI's Biomanufacturing Education & Training CenterStartups typically can't afford production equipment until their product is hitting the market, Rashid said.
Supporting Casts
A cluster of biotechnology firms means lots of current and prospective clients in the neighborhood for a consulting firm like Boston Biomedical Associates, said Mack Rubley, the company's director of business development. It also gives smaller companies easier access to contract services to help with statistical analysis, clinical trials or regulatory paperwork.
That was appealing to Argo Medical Technologies, which opened its U.S. headquarters in Marlborough in January. The Israeli company has just 10 American employees today, but expects to quickly grow operations once its ReWalk — a device that allows a paralyzed person to walk again — is approved for sale in the U.S.
“If we double, triple or quadruple in size pretty quickly, I've still got plenty of other space in Marlborough to go,” CEO Larry Jasinski said.
The region's rising popularity comes at a price, though. The value of commercial properties in the area began rising in the spring for the first time since the recession, Holmes said, and Priscoli expects rent prices to rise modestly over the next year or two.
Still, MEDC Executive Director Tim Cummings is predicting consistent growth in the life sciences industry over the next couple of months. And even if rental rises rise in MetroWest, McQuilken is confident the region will still seem cheap when compared to places like Boston and Cambridge.
“As long as we continue to invest, we will continue to see growth,” McQuilken said.
Read more
HeartWare Buys NJ Firm For $30M
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments