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As the life sciences market continues to face significant pain, a massive lab development over the Massachusetts Turnpike has paused until conditions improve.
San Diego-based IQHQ announced that its $1B, 960K SF Fenway Center project isn't moving forward until it is at least 50% leased, the life sciences developer told The Boston Globe. Although the project isn't moving forward, the deck the company built over the Mass Pike is set to complete in the first quarter of 2026.
“We have no plans to go vertical at this point,” IQHQ President Tracy Murphy told the Globe. “Given lending market conditions, we’re going to sit and evaluate once the podium is done in the first quarter.”
IQHQ didn't respond to Bisnow's request for comment.
The project is being developed in partnership with local firm Meredith Management Corp.
Construction on the deck began five years ago. The construction required closure of highway lanes in each direction, additional late-night lane closures and a $55M air rights lease.
IQHQ and the state's Department of Transportation were sued in September by J.F. White Contracting Co. over allegedly owing the contracting firm $27M for the work it did on the deck.
Other projects in IQHQ's Greater Boston portfolio have fallen under similar uncertainty.
Some of its buildings are sitting empty, including a 285K SF property at 109 Brookline Ave. Other plans have been scrapped entirely, including 646K SF of lab projects on North Beacon Street in Brighton, which the landlord has since sold off.
IQHQ is also reassessing its Hotel Buckminster redevelopment in Kenmore Square.
The life sciences market continues to face a severe supply-and-demand imbalance and an unstable market, which has weighed down on developers opening projects.
Over one-third of all life sciences space in Greater Boston sat vacant at the end of the third quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Vacancy was at its highest in the urban ring, a submarket consisting of Watertown, Somerville, Allston, Brighton and Fenway that has 11.7M SF of lab space, 55% of which was empty at the end of the quarter.
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