Alexandria Scraps Fenway Lab Conversion Plans
As the life sciences market continues to struggle, one of its largest landlords has other plans for what once was a Fenway lab project.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities announced a pivot away from plans to convert 401 Park Drive in Fenway into lab space.
"We have seen an increase in demand for office," Alexandria CEO Peter Moglia said during the Q4 earnings call. "Given the availability we have elsewhere in the Fenway for lab, it made more sense to just go ahead and follow a business plan to lease it as office and not create any more lab space in the near future."
The property, formerly known as The Landmark Center, has gone through several changes over the last couple of years.
The campus almost lost Time Out Market when its then-operator, Time Out Group, earlier this month announced the food hall was closing. Almost a day before the scheduled closure, Samuels & Associates stepped in to manage the market.
The campus has also lost retail tenant REI, which in October announced plans to close. Restaurant tech company Toast vacated its 130K SF at 401 Park Drive in 2024 to relocate to the Fort Point neighborhood.
Alexandria bought the property from Samuels in 2021 for $1.2B. The life sciences developer planned to convert the property to lab space, like the two adjacent properties at 421 Park Drive and 201 Brookline Ave.
The plan change came as Alexandria reported a $1.1B operating loss in the fourth quarter despite strong leasing activity.
