Cambridge Infill and Small Developments

pixelsand8 said:
Major waste of space.
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Totally. Don't people know it's 2014 and, um, there are hipsters and robots and stuff, and everyone is supposed to want to live in a studio apartment with some sleek Swedish-made cabinets to keep their children in?
 
itchy said:
Totally. Don't people know it's 2014 and, um, there are hipsters and robots and stuff, and everyone is supposed to want to live in a studio apartment with some sleek Swedish-made cabinets to keep their children in?
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That's mean. But funny! I'm twirling my handlebar mustache in amusement.
 
Finally some of the "waterfall" is going up. Sorry, just a single crappy iPhone pic...

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Seems we'll be getting some more big biotech news for the Kendall/MIT area.

BBJ exclusive: Major life sciences company hunting for new U.S. headquarters in Cambridge

May 29, 2014, 2:00pm EDT
By Craig Douglas

Massachusetts economic and business officials are in the advanced stages of a clandestine plan to relocate the U.S. headquarters of a major life sciences company to Cambridge from out of state.

Local sources who asked not to be identified have told the Boston Business Journal that the effort, dubbed “Project Tiger,” is expected to bring hundreds of new, senior-level executive and administrative jobs to the city. Those same sources also confirmed that the company in question is committed to Cambridge, versus other possible locations in Massachusetts, and has hired Transwestern|RBJ in Boston to find 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of office space, with the expectation of adding another 200,000 square feet of research and laboratory space once its primary move is complete. Transwestern|RBJ did not return calls for this story.

Based on an industry standard of around 200 square feet of space per employee, Project Tiger’s initial office requirement would be enough to house between 750 and 1,000 employees.

Local sources familiar with Project Tiger’s real estate needs say Cambridge’s tight office market will make it challenging to accommodate such a large demand for contiguous space. But options do exist, including:

--2 Canal Park, an empty 230,831-square-foot building owned by a real estate affiliate of TA Associates in Boston. The space recently saw around 40,000 square feet leased by Kayak.com, but still is mostly available for lease.

--88 Sidney St., a 145,000-square-foot building owned by MIT and recently vacated by Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

--35 and 200 Cambridgepark Drive, a complex of roughly 300,000 square feet of space being vacated and sold by Pfizer to King Street Properties, which could easily convert the properties to office space.

--Alexandria Center, a seven-building development in Kendall Square that is slated to include a 386,000-square-foot space for Ariad Pharmaceuticals. The company’s recent challenges have raised speculation that a pull-out from the project at 225 Binney St. is pending.

--50 Hampshire St., a 170,000-square-foot building owned by Biomed Realty Trust that is now home to CDM Smith Inc. The engineering and construction services firm has long been rumored to want a cheaper space, and Biomed is more likely to end its long-term lease with CDM if it can be replaced with a market-rate tenant in the life sciences industry.
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Full Article
 
Shit, 400,000 total square feet of space is going to get gobbled up in this. That's a hell of a lot of space. Since they said "US Headquarters", that leads me to believe this is an international company. Given its commitment to the area, it could be Novartis. The BioMedical Research HQ is in Cambridge already, but their US HQ is in New Jersey I believe. However that seems doubtful since it seems the search is pretty far along, so if they were going to make such a major move they probably would have included it in the plans for their new building. The mystery company will also add 200,000 sq ft of research space so that doesn't necessarily add up for Novartis since they're already making such a big expansion.

Either way, it'll be cool to follow this. Hopefully it's a company which doesn't have a strong presence here already. It'd be cool to have the presence of a new major life sciences company in the area. Not to mention the fact that this is going to add a lot of new jobs. Great news.

Edit: Unconfirmed rumor that it's going to be Bayer AG, from Germany.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...t-cambridge/0PdOXN5eoipVF1opNvuZ6H/story.html

No one knows for sure. During an interview with NECN, BBJ Managing Editor Craig Douglas said he’s heard from several sources the group may involve German pharmaceuticals giant Bayer AG, but that is not confirmed.

Earlier this month, Bayer made waves in the market when it sold a division to Boston Scientific for $415 million. According to the Boston Globe, the division makes a product used to remove blood clots.

The BBJ lists several potential Cambridge locations for Project Tiger, and promises more details in a Friday story.
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This would be very good since as far as I can see, Bayer has zero presence in the state of Massachusetts.
 
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CC's plaza is looking good:

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And the Watermark II and 450 Kendall Street:

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159 First Street:

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150 Second:

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So I totally think that works for what the architects were going for but that doesn't mean I like the building.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
So I totally think that works for what the architects were going for but that doesn't mean I like the building.
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I wouldn't have an issue with this building if it weren't so damn visible. It might be the most prominent building in Cambridge from the river, and that really demanded something more than a shrugging "kay, I guess we'll do something weird" from the design team.
 
The "Tower Glass" crane was up and about a bit Saturday and yesterday but the waterfall's progress has slowed a bit in the last two weeks...
 
Is there any word of what's going on with Two Canal Park? Any prospective tenants? I was just at CambridgeSide the other day and the building is still empty since Monitor was acquired and vacated Two Canal Park last year. It'd be a prime place for residential conversion, especially with the new Lechmere station on the horizon...
 
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^ That article I posted in post # 2076 mentions it as a candidate for the mystery life sciences firm looking for a big chunk of space.
 
Equilibria said:
I wouldn't have an issue with this building if it weren't so damn visible. It might be the most prominent building in Cambridge from the river, and that really demanded something more than a shrugging "kay, I guess we'll do something weird" from the design team.
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Reminds me of the building off the turnpike in Framingham near the headquarters of TJX that's just a big box with funny corner turrets and colorful facade panels...all supposedly post-modernism.... I don't know who's going to benefit from the waterfall effect except the architect.
 
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