{"id":300030,"date":"2025-11-18T23:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/300030\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T23:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:14:11","slug":"greater-bostons-hottest-lab-building-isnt-in-kendall-square-its-in-watertown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/300030\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Boston\u2019s hottest lab building isn\u2019t in Kendall Square. It\u2019s in Watertown."},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Boston Globe\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t66 Galen Street, photographed as construction was wrapping up in 2024, near Watertown Square. <\/p>\n

Suzanne Kreiter\/Globe Staff\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Jon Chesto, The Boston Globe\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tupdated on November 18, 2025 | 1:43 PM\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

3 minutes to read<\/p>\n

The beleaguered lab market in Greater Boston offers plenty of empty space seemingly everywhere you look<\/a>. But one exception can be found \u2014 and it\u2019s near the Newton-Watertown line.<\/p>\n

With a nearly 58,000-square-foot lease finalized this week by coworking space operator LabShares<\/a>, the four-story building at 66 Galen St. is essentially fully occupied.<\/p>\n

LabShares chief executive Philip Borden said the building was \u201cin the Goldilocks zone\u201d from his perspective: close enough to the biotech hotbed of Kendall Square and to Logan Airport, but with manageable commutes for suburban executives and lower lease costs. Borden is nearly maxed out at the current location for LabShares, which offers 44,000 square feet of coworking space for biotechs at a nearby complex in Newton. This move to expand into 66 Galen will more than double his company\u2019s footprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making a big bet here and I\u2019m excited to do it,\u201d said Borden, who acquired LabShares<\/a> with investor Pacific Lake Partners from founder Jeff Behrens two years ago. \u201cThis building is going to help us be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 224,000-square-foot building was completed last year without a tenant lined up, amid a growing glut of supply. Co-developer Davis Companies had originally hoped to attract a big pharma tenant that would lease the entire thing. But then biotech entrepreneur Greg Verdine showed up<\/a>. While he wasn\u2019t about to occupy the whole building at big-pharma prices, he provided crucial momentum by leasing more than half of the space for two of his companies. More recently, two other life sciences companies, NanoDx and Psivant, each took about 20,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

\"NanoDx chief executive George Serafin celebrating a ribbon cutting, alongside chief commercial officer Mike Sampson, at the company\u2019s new location at 66 Galen St. in October. \u2013 Photo courtesy of NanoDx<\/p>\n

Brokerage JLL analyzed leasing activity in the Greater Boston market over an 18-month period ending in June, at Davis\u2019s request. With those three deals, the Galen Street building saw the largest reduction of empty space in the entire lab market over that time: 155,000 square feet. That was before LabShares arrived, a lease that brings the building up to 95 percent occupancy, with only around 10,000 square feet still available there. (JLL\u2019s analysis also took place before two big leases were announced for drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. in the Seaport<\/a>, and AI company Lila Sciences in Cambridge<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

JLL executive Bob Richards said the building is outperforming the market at a time when around one-third of the region\u2019s lab space is empty. Big selling points he cited include amenities such as a fitness center, first-floor coffee shop, an amphitheater-style lobby, free parking under the building, and outdoor decks overlooking the Charles River.<\/p>\n

Boston Development Group initially assembled the site<\/a>, and sought a codeveloper to build out and market the property. Davis chief executive Jonathan Davis said he saw great potential in the location when his firm teamed up with BDG about four years ago, considering its proximity to a Mass. Turnpike exit, the Watertown bus terminal, the Charles River paths, and the shops and restaurants of Watertown Square. Another advantage that emerged more recently: The city council\u2019s rezoning a year ago<\/a> of the Square and its surroundings has the potential to bring thousands of new housing units over time.<\/p>\n

Davis said he also realized his firm needed to be aggressive with its lease terms, given the broader market conditions, to make the building more appealing than nearby rivals.<\/p>\n

Verdine, a pioneer in chemical biology, found all of those aspects appealing when he started looking for a new home for LifeMine. He said his friend, investment banker Jeff Leerink, suggested that Verdine take a look at 66 Galen. Eventually, he and Davis hit it off. LifeMine started moving there in September, and VidaVinci opened up earlier this month. Once the word got out that Verdine was moving in, his phone started ringing, with calls from other prospective tenants, wanting to learn more.<\/p>\n

\"LabShares is outgrowing its complex in Newton (pictured here) and is expanding to 66 Galen St. in Watertown. \u2013 Photo courtesy of LabShares<\/p>\n

Verdine\u2019s lease was one of many factors in Borden\u2019s decision to expand at 66 Galen. The original LabShares location is bustling because biotech entrepreneurs can save money there by not having to fit out their own lab space. More than 25 biotechs are in LabShares today, and Borden expects to eventually accommodate another 20 to 30 at 66 Galen after expanding there, in two phases next year.<\/p>\n

Borden likes that he\u2019ll be able to show potential clients around a busy lab building \u2014 as opposed to a half-empty one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to create an active, vibrant ecosystem,\u201d Borden said. \u201cNo one wants to be in an empty lab. \u2026 They will feel that energy. They will feel that activity. That\u2019s a difference maker for our business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Globe 66 Galen Street, photographed as construction was wrapping up in 2024, near Watertown Square. Suzanne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-300030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}