Genzyme Gobbles Up Space in Framingham | Boston biotech's appetite for space in MetroWest continues
Genzyme Corp. and Integrated Genetics, which both launched themselves in 1981, became one in 1989, and since then Genzyme has used IG’s 51 New York Ave. location in Framingham to keep expanding.
Genzyme’s expansion along New York Avenue is such an integral part of the company’s growth that the state has already begun paying Framingham $12.9 million in water and sewer upgrades so the company will not go somewhere else to expand.
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center board, which was created to oversee $1 billion the State Legislature passed earlier this year to help the biotechnology industry grow and thrive in Massachusetts, approved the first $5.2 million of the infrastructure improvement money a few weeks ago.
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The improvements will include a new pumping station for the wastewater or sewer system, improved sewer lines further down the system so it can handle more volume and improved water infrastructure to provide more water use.
Genzyme has grown from a modest start in Framingham, according to Henry Fitzgerald, Genzyme’s vice president of facility operations. The company now has 14 buildings and more than 1 million square feet in Framingham alone, he said.
Sixteen months ago the entire process for additional Genzyme expansion got going when Framingham received$250,000 in grants from the state Office of Housing and Economic Development, according to Peter A. Sellers, Framingham’s Department of Public Works director. The grant was part of the Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion program, which aims to help cities and towns finance infrastructure improvements that spur economic development.
In this case, when Framingham’s infrastructure improves Genzyme can keep expanding and 300 jobs will be added to the company’s Framingham workforce when the cell culture research and manufacturing building is up and running in the fall of next year.
A new wastewater pump is needed because Genzyme’s properties are located in area that resembles a shallow bowl, which means the wastewater needs to be pumped out and forced to a point where gravity can do the rest.
Making these improvements is important not just for Genzyme’s immediate expansion over the next year or two, but also to handle Genzyme’s ability to expand upward, thanks to changes voted on at Framingham’s town meeting this past spring. Voters approved zoning changes specific to the tech park: building height can be 100 feet instead of 80 feet and the setback went from 30 to 15 feet.
As with many older communities, the sewer and water infrastructure has not been modernized at the same pace as Framingham’s growth, and much of the sewer system, not just the part associated with Genzyme, has to be improved.
Sometimes because the there is not enough capacity, effluent comes up through the system’s manholes. The town is under order by state regulators to address those issues.
The new wastewater pump station will also be an improvement because the current one is located in a wetlands area, something that would never be permitted today, Sellers said. Instead, it will be located closer to Genzyme, on town land with an easement for Genzyme to access it.
The town is talking with railroad behemoth CSX about relocating the sewer lines along the railroad’s right of way. The pipes that need replacing currently run through peoples’ backyards and through wetlands areas, and so far CSX is listening, Sellers said.
Framingham officials are hopeful because some of the town’s pipes already run along the railroad lines.
The water infrastructure is important too because Genzyme’s biotechnology and biopharmaceutical work needs a lot of water.
The current water system in the tech park includes only one water pipe underneath the nearby reservoir, which is a problem because if it should it be out of service, there are no back up pipes.
The new design will include a second, larger capacity pipe under the reservoir and new, larger pipes in the tech park itself, Sellers said.
That will allow Genzyme to continue building. It has already started on its cell manufacturing plant, which will also have an administrative building next to it, both of which are across the street from its newly finished science center at 49 New York Avenue.
The company has also bought other properties in the park, such as the First Student bus company, Fitzgerald said.
Genzyme is in the process of helping the bus company move to a new location and the property will then be available for expansion purposes, even if it is to provide more employee parking.
The infrastructure improvements may also be attracting new companies to the tech park, evidenced by the recent purchases of real estate development company The Congress Group of Boston, which has purchased three buildings, with the intention of possibly redeveloping them into biotech buildings.
“We’re leading the way and we’ve transformed the growth of manufacturing here in the tech park,” Fitzgerald said.
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