Boynton Yards | 99-101 South/808 Windsor | Somerville

20210119_142505.jpg

Somerville has such density, and yet the city has such a squat building typology that even a 10 story office building sticks out in the center. Per Javier's picture - this building will most certainly disappear into the background once others of the new Union Square downtown district pop up.

With large size office buildings now at Lechmere and here, it will be interesting to watch GL outbound ridership statistics - actual job demand at the line terminus and only a 5 minute ride from North Station Commuter rail hub.
 
Private RE development in every new neighborhood works the same way, no matter what city or neighborhood. The first project is always a major risk, almost guaranteed. With risk comes cost cutting. That cost cutting is sub-bar architecture. The next project builds upon the momentum of the previous, and increases the demand for units/space in both developments. The bank gets all of the revenue generated in each development until the loans are paid off, and then the developer gets any remaining income after the loans are covered, usually in the last few units/thousand square feet, so the developers are incentivized to keep building/investing in the neighborhood such that the last units are sold at a higher price as a result of the higher demand/attractiveness. It's less so a guessing game and much more calculated and tested - it's literally written out step by step in RE development books.

I also don't see the appeal, long term, to develop biomanufacturing facilities in every urban setting that's under redevelopment just because the Boston Business Journal said we're running critically low on biomanufacturing facilities. The requirements for those are exactly what the I95-belt and beyond is built and ready for.
 
I also don't see the appeal, long term, to develop biomanufacturing facilities in every urban setting that's under redevelopment just because the Boston Business Journal said we're running critically low on biomanufacturing facilities. The requirements for those are exactly what the I95-belt and beyond is built and ready for.

Because it's the only commercial space that the developer is sure will be needed post-COVID.
 
great pix (as usual), but damn this building is shockingly unimaginative.
 
great pix (as usual), but damn this building is shockingly unimaginative.
yup, here's hoping that the view of it gets obscured by slightly more interesting buildings in the years to come.
 

Digging into the article a little (for the non-subscribers) is this interesting paragraph. The model they're proposing actually sounds like the lab-equivalent to WeWork, and might be onto something:

One real estate industry source said Flagship plans to lease the whole of 101 South St. to allow itself flexibility to expand or shrink the real-estate footprint of some of its startups without the hassle of individual leases for each company. It's often difficult for biotech startups to project their future real-estate needs, and they are reluctant to sign a traditional 10-year lease for a set amount of space, because a company that gets FDA approvals for their drugs will see its space needs expand rapidly, while disappointing trial results can dramatically reduce a company's need for more lab space.
 
This is not exactly new for Flagship, which has had lab space in various places around Kendall for this reason, or Third Rock (another biotech VC/incubator). What's new is having a dedicated building for it, instead of pieces across separate buildings; this is enabled by enough lab space getting built to enable a VC to actually do this.

A lab-version of a wework or incubator is not exactly new --- LabCentral in Kendall is the best example of this; there's numerous others including one Harvard has in Allston.
 
An update on what Equilibria and Dshoost88 posted a couple months back regarding what's going in here.

I'm impressed. Laronde and 3 other cutting edge startups are taking up 100% at the building. Incredibly exciting stuff.


"........Of course, it has a long way to go. Laronde has 50 employees, and it plans to add another 200 over the next two years. The biotech will have plenty of room to grow with two floors at 101 South St. on the Boynton Yards campus in Somerville, a new lab and office space expected to open later this year. The 290,000 square-foot, nine-story building will be fully leased by four Flagship companies, including Tessera Therapeutics, a “gene writing” startup that launched last year and has raised $280 million, and single-cell sequencing startup Cellarity.

The first building at Boynton Yards, 101 South St., where Flagship Pioneering will place four startup biotechs, including Laronde.
The first building at Boynton Yards, 101 South St., where Flagship Pioneering will place four startup biotechs, including Laronde.COURTESY OF UNMARKED STUDIOS
 
Last edited:
An update on what Equilibria and Dshoost88 posted a couple months back regarding what's going in here.

I'm impressed. Laronde and 3 other cutting edge startups are taking up 100% at the building. Incredibly exciting stuff.


"........Of course, it has a long way to go. Laronde has 50 employees, and it plans to add another 200 over the next two years. The biotech will have plenty of room to grow with two floors at 101 South St. on the Boynton Yards campus in Somerville, a new lab and office space expected to open later this year. The 290,000 square-foot, nine-story building will be fully leased by four Flagship companies, including Tessera Therapeutics, a “gene writing” startup that launched last year and has raised $280 million, and single-cell sequencing startup Cellarity.

The first building at Boynton Yards, 101 South St., where Flagship Pioneering will place four startup biotechs, including Laronde.
The first building at Boynton Yards, 101 South St., where Flagship Pioneering will place four startup biotechs, including Laronde.COURTESY OF UNMARKED STUDIOS
And it's keeping me and my team very busy...
 
OK, that's a tease. I'd like to hear more about this!
Yeah, not really a tease. But one of the many exciting projects in the area I'm working on. This one is going crazy fast, but I think should do for the area what vertex did for fan pier.

New lab building at union square, 15 McGrath, another one at Boynton yards (that I'm not working on.)

I usually hold my tongue a little bit on these. But, it's in the paper and it's very exciting.

It was fun reading the post above about flagship, and third rock, and lab central. It was like someone was writing my resume 😀
 
Yeah, not really a tease. But one of the many exciting projects in the area I'm working on. This one is going crazy fast, but I think should do for the area what vertex did for fan pier.

New lab building at union square, 15 McGrath, another one at Boynton yards (that I'm not working on.)

I usually hold my tongue a little bit on these. But, it's in the paper and it's very exciting.

It was fun reading the post above about flagship, and third rock, and lab central. It was like someone was writing my resume 😀

Totally understand. Whenever you can, always feel free to expound!

Boston/Cambridge/Somerville/Allston/Brighton is truly among the forefront regions on this planet right now at a point in human scientific history the import of which I’m not sure any of us fully grasp yet.

Adding on to this, the Gingko Bioworks $15+ billion dollar spac deal yesterday that will absolutely be another Vertex, but in the Marine Industrial Park, and you have science/economic eruptions all over the area.
 
Boston/Cambridge/Somerville/Allston/Brighton is truly among the forefront regions on this planet right now at a point in human scientific history the import of which I’m not sure any of us fully grasp yet.

Agreed - Last year in April as the pandemic was beginning, I thought to myself, 'the scientists who are going to help end this are no doubt doing their work in Kendall Square,' and of course Moderna is leading the way.

On a related note, according to a Colliers analysis of Real Capital Analytics data, life sciences-centered deals in Boston made up nearly a quarter of all major investment sales in the country: $5.1B of the $20.5B nationwide (in the first three months in the year). WOWOW
 

Back
Top