Skanska USA Commercial Development announced today that it has sold 150 Second Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. for $94.5 million.
150 Second Street is a three-story, 123,000 square-foot, Class A, LEED® Platinum lab and office building located in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, the world’s leading biotechnology and life science cluster. It boasts large windows designed to wash natural daylight throughout an open floor plan concept, which reduces the need for artificial lighting systems. To reduce water waste, the project includes an underground rainwater storage and filtration system that captures and treats stormwater runoff from 90% of the annual rainfall and removes at least 95% of total suspended solids. The project also includes a landscaped rain garden with native vegetation that will not require irrigation. In total, these measures will reduce water consumption of the building by approximately 250,000 gallons per year.
150 Second Street is currently 85 percent leased; Foundation Medicine, Inc., a molecular information company that uses genomic analysis to help doctors identify targeted cancer treatments for patients, currently occupies 61,591 square feet. bluebird bio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on transforming the lives of patients with severe genetic and orphan diseases using gene therapy, will occupy 43,586 square feet beginning in January 2014.
“150 Second Street exemplifies Skanska’s commitment to creating space that enhances local communities – this lab and office building provides the space critical for companies to make the kind of scientific discoveries that have established Boston as a sought-after, world-renowned biotech center,” said Shawn Hurley, executive vice president of Skanska USA Commercial Development in Boston. “Skanska is pursuing additional opportunities in the Boston area that will bring value to Boston’s residents and businesses, while also creating healthy, efficient space for companies and tenants.”
In addition to 150 Second Street, Skanska Commercial Development’s projects in Greater Boston include three projects in Boston’s Innovation District. Those three projects include: 101 Seaport, a $126 million, 17-story, 440,000 square-foot office tower with 20,000 square feet of ground floor retail; Parcel L2, where Skanska plans to develop a 430,000-square-foot office tower; and Watermark Seaport, a planned residential tower with more than 300 apartments and 25,000 square feet of retail space on which Skanska is working in collaboration with Twining Properties. In addition, Skanska acquired 1350 Boylston Street in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood in 2012.