King Street Properties and BW Kennedy break ground on spec 145,000 s/f lab and office building

Waltham, MA According to Transwestern Consulting Group (TCG), King Street Properties has broken ground on 828 Winter St. The speculative, 144,910 s/f laboratory and office building is scheduled for completion in mid-2018. TCG partners Eric Smith and Jon Varholak will provide leasing services for the building.

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. provided debt financing services for the construction of 828 Winter St. The project team includes architect Perkins+Will and general contractor BW Kennedy & Company.

 King Street Props. purchased 830 Winter St., a fully leased, 185,000s/f, Class A laboratory building with an adjacent site for development. When 828 Winter St. is complete, the two-building campus will encompass 330,000 s/f, making it the largest multitenant lab campus outside Cambridge.

 “We purchased this site in August 2015 because we see Waltham as a world-class life sciences destination, home to a wide range of innovators,” said Tyson Reynoso, senior associate at King Street. “Since 2006, employment in Greater Boston’s life sciences industry has grown by 32%, but new lab construction has not kept up with demand. This best-in-class suburban life sciences campus with urban amenities will meet that demand.”

Today the Waltham/Lexington lab market is space constrained. While there’s been a 178% increase in laboratory inventory since 2004, vacancy since that time has dropped from 34% to 0.7% at the end of first quarter 2017.

The Waltham/Lexington submarket is an increasingly attractive choice to life sciences tenants that cannot find affordable space in Cambridge. Laboratory average asking lease rates are upwards of $30 per s/f more expensive in East Cambridge than in Waltham/Lexington.

“Waltham and Lexington, given their proximity to Cambridge and the region’s major highways, have become the center of life sciences in the Greater Boston suburbs,” said Smith. “The suburbs have begun feeling the pinch of constraint in laboratory space that has been an issue for Cambridge. King Street Properties is addressing this demand with 828 Winter St., which will appeal to life sciences users that are looking to either establish or expand in the market.”

Waltham’s first speculative laboratory building, 828 Winter St. will be composed of three floors of 48,000 s/f each and feature laboratory base building mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that will accommodate a wide range of tenant requirements.

The Winter St. campus is located off I-95/Rte. 128 and 5 miles from the Mass. Turnpike. On-campus amenities include two cafeteria options, outside seating in a central courtyard, conference facilities, structured parking, bicycle storage and showers with changing facilities. Numerous hotels, restaurants and retail destinations are nearby.