There has been a massive surge in the biotechnology industry in
and around Boston of late. There is a new trend amongst the
corporations in this field in terms of where to locate their large
facilities. But why now?
In the past, biomedical firms have been drawn to the less
expensive sprawls of land, often in the middle of nowhere where
they would construct massive campuses to house their many
intelligent minds and laboratories. However, there posed a problem
with this strategy as there was no overlapping of ideas or healthy
competition from other companies to drive their employees to work
harder and achieve more. Now, this isolationism is no longer
present.
There is a trade-off at hand because by relocating to the city,
there is a great deal of action which, as a result, obviously means
greater rent and values of property. In spite of this, the hope is
that with other firms and educational institutions nearby there
will be increased collaboration and learning from one another.
This, therefore, should lead to continued innovation and
transformation of their products that these same companies would
not realize if they were in their rural locations of the past.
Corporations such as Pfizer Inc. are currently ready to
construct a new 180,000 square foot building in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. In addition, Cambridge also will
be home to Biogen Idec Inc., which is building a 495,000 square
foot facility for their drug making purposes. In Cambridge alone we
see some 1.7 million square feet of laboratory space has already
broken ground and is due to be completed in the not so distant
future. Another large company, Novartis International AG, has made
headlines for cutting some 2,000 jobs from their sectors in places
in the United States and Europe. Despite this, no job
losses are expected to happen in the Greater Boston Area for
Novartis. As an alternative, the firm has taken the
initiative to build two new buildings and renovate one facility all
totalling 550,000 square feet once again in Cambridge.
As a general consensus, the move to cities within the biotech
industry has been most prevalent in Boston, New York/New Jersey,
and the Bay Area in California. According to the real estate
advisory company, Jones Lang LaSalle, this information furthered
the notion that although over the past year construction has been
down 3% overall, it has increased in the subcategory of
manufacturer-owned laboratory construction, which is what
biotechnology falls under.
Being in areas rich with business competition and one with world
class Universities that consistently produce brilliant minds in the
Greater Boston Area is what has made our home so appetizing to the
biotech community. In this proud time to be a resident of Boston,
we clearly are continuing to diversify and distance ourselves from
the many competing cities throughout the country.
Source:
WSJ.com