Alexandria Inks Full-Building Lease at Boston-Area Campus

60 Sylvan Road on the Alexandria Center for Life Science – Waltham mega-campus. Image courtesy of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. has signed a long-term lease for the 165,940-rentable-square-foot building at 60 Sylvan Road on its Alexandria Center for Life Science – Waltham mega-campus in metro Boston.

The future tenant is Novo Nordisk, a global health-care and pharmaceutical company. 60 Sylvan Road is currently under redevelopment and expected to deliver in 2025.

Sited in the Route 128 submarket, Alexandria Center for Life Science – Waltham totals 1.5 million rentable square feet and includes numerous amenities, including flexible conference and meeting space, an expansive central lawn, collaboration pods, a café, a fitness and wellness center, outdoor biking and walking paths, and a vertical farm. The campus includes 40, 50 and 60 Sylvan Road; 35 Gatehouse Drive; and 840 Winter St.

READ ALSO: Emerging Life Science Hubs Stake a Claim

Denmark-based Novo Nordisk is best known for semaglutide, which was approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in 2017 under the brand name Ozempic, to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes. In 2021, the FDA added approval for the drug, under the brand name Wegovy, for long-term weight management in adults.

An ideal moment?

Current conditions in the Boston region’s market for life science space “have created a unique moment in time that will greatly benefit life science occupiers and help Greater Boston sustain its healthy life science market,” according to a third-quarter report from Cushman & Wakefield.

This moment, the report explains, results from a confluence of historically high tenant improvement packages and flattening construction costs, letting tenants save on buildouts.

Cushman & Wakefield reports that almost 15 million square feet of life science space is underway in Greater Boston, with 12 million of that delivering by the end of this year. About one-third of that space is preleased.

Earlier this month, Alexandria leased nearly 100,000 square feet at its Alexandria Center for Life Science – San Carlos, in the Bay Area, to CARGO Therapeutics.

In June, a joint venture of Alloy Properties, an affiliate of TPG Real Estate Partners, and Anchor Line Partners acquired five life science assets in Cambridge and Waltham, Mass., from Alexandria for $365 million. The properties total about 425,000 square feet.