by Catherine Carlock / via The Boston Globe
A Waltham lab and office building that started construction in 2019 without any tenants committed has landed leases from two biotech companies.
Seqirus, a global influenza vaccine maker with a local research and development arm in Cambridge, and ElevateBio BaseCamp, the Waltham research and development and manufacturing arm of Cambridge gene therapy company ElevateBio, will join software company Pegasystems at 225 Wyman St., just off Route 128, this spring.
“Interest in the Waltham market continues to grow exponentially,” said Don Domoretsky, managing director at JLL, the leasing agent for 225 Wyman, in a statement.
Indeed, the region’s lab market has continued to expand beyond the urban cores of Kendall Square and Boston’s Seaport. In addition to 225 Wyman developer Hobbs Brook Real Estate, developers such as Boston Properties and Anchor Line Partners are also targeting lab construction in Waltham.
Seqirus is relocating its research and development hub from Cambridge to 225 Wyman, where it can house 300 employees in a 140,000-square-foot space
“As our R&D investments and capabilities grow significantly, so too has demand for the additional space needed to advance our pipeline and fortify our broad portfolio of differentiated influenza vaccines,” said Ethan Settembre, vice president of research at Seqirus, in a statement.
ElevateBio last year closed a $525 million fund-raising round. Andrew Sandford, previously of Catalent Pharma Solutions, joined ElevateBio BaseCamp as president last month.
The 225 Wyman development is now 90 percent leased, with all of its lab space preleased ahead of the building’s expected completion this spring.
Jerome Kyllingstad, vice president and director of asset management at Hobbs Brook, touted Waltham as the “ideal location” for a building that prioritized both amenities and outdoor space.
“Waltham . . . now has the highest combined office and lab inventory in the Boston suburbs,” Kyllingstad said.