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A Waltham-based company is building a biomanufacturing plant, the latest in a wave of recent leases and developments for this high-tech manufacturing across Greater Boston.
Snapdragon Chemistry has leased the 51K SF building at 360 Second Ave., with plans to build out an operational facility by the end of the year, the company announced this week. The chemical technology company signed a 10-year lease with an affiliate of Garden City, New York-based WRS Associates, according to public records.
Snapdragon tapped veteran biotechnology architecture and design firm CRB to design the good manufacturing practices, or GMP, facility. A representative of WRS said William Achenbaum, who is listed on property records, was unavailable for comment.
The continuous manufacturing Snapdragon will perform resembles an assembly line process relatively unique to pharmaceutical production, a contrast to batch production done in large steel vats, Snapdragon CEO and President Matthew Bio said.
"I think the advantage for continuous manufacturing is energy efficient, we can make more with less," Bio said. "It also represents a much greater safety profile. We’re not filling a big vat and waiting for them to react, we’re doing it on a relatively small scale."
Bio declined to comment on the financial terms of the lease. A WRS source was unavailable for comment Thursday. The company’s headquarters is in a 16K SF office down the street at 300 Second Ave., The Boston Globe reported.
Life sciences firms have flocked to Waltham, where asking rents range from $50 to $70 per SF, compared to up to $95 per SF in the Seaport, or up to $115 in Cambridge’s Kendall Square, according to Newmark. Dyne Therapeutics and Translate Bio also moved into Waltham last year with leases for 68K SF and 138K SF, respectively.
The biomanufacturing facility is the latest in a flurry of similar moves across the region as the industry turns from research and development to building out manufacturing space. Biomanufacturing sites could also compete with the similarly competitive industrial market as Amazon and other e-commerce companies seek distribution space.
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