The original building in South Boston will be expanded by 305,000 s.f.
By Murray W. Wolf
BOSTON – There has been a flurry of activity in recent days surrounding Beacon Capital Partners LLC’s Southline Boston project, the ongoing redevelopment of the former Boston Globe headquarters property in South Boston.
Last week, Beacon submitted plans for a six-story, 305,000 square foot office/lab addition to the existing 695,000 square foot Southline building at 135 William T. Morrissey Blvd., directly east of the Southeast Expressway (Interstate I-93) in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood.
Then, this week, life sciences venture capital (VC) firm Portal Innovations announced that it will be moving next month into 22,000 square feet of space in the original Southline building, which is the adaptive reuse of the former Boston Globe headquarters building, with plans to grow to 58,000 square feet by the first half of 2024.
The addition. Beacon formally submitted a Notice of Project Change (NPA) and a Planned Development Application (PDA) to the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BDPA) last Thursday (March 23) for the previously announced project. The public has until April 22 to comment on the NPA and May 7 to comment on the PDA.
The new wing would contain lab, R&D, office, ground-floor retail and restaurant space, and a three-level, below-grade parking facility for about 417 vehicles.
According to documents on file with the city, construction of the addition is expected to commence in the second quarter (Q2) of 2024 with completion in Q4 2026.
Elkus | Manfredi Architects of Boston in the project architect.
The new tenant. Portal Innovations announced Wednesday (March 29) that the “high-end wet lab and office space” it will be leasing in the original Southline building will be used to facilitate growth for life sciences startups seeking Series A (also known as “seed” funding) and Series B rounds of funding.
“We are excited to bring our unique business model to an emerging part of the Boston life science ecosystem,” John Flavin, founder and CEO of Portal Innovations, said in the news release. “Boston is home to world-class universities, premier life sciences venture capital firms, and an unsurpassed pool of diverse talent. Portal is eager to support entrepreneurs and founders by providing its Crafted Capital model of seed capital investment, access to strategic lab space, and management expertise to de-risk these early-stage ventures.”
“Massachusetts is unmatched in its life sciences research and development, and we join in Portal’s excitement about the promise that Boston’s neighborhoods bring to growing the industry and supporting innovation,” added Jason Cordeiro, chief operating officer of MassBio, a not-for-profit a trade association that represents the commonwealth’s life sciences industry.
“Southline Boston and Portal’s new space will deliver more opportunities for emerging biotech entrepreneurs and startups to advance their patient-driven science, be successful in their business, and contribute to the larger ecosystem,” Mr. Cordeiro said.
“Boston is the leading hub for biomedical innovation and we’re thrilled to partner with Portal to support early-stage venture firms and their portfolio companies,” said Fred Seigel, CEO of Beacon Capital. “Offering a fully developed life sciences ecosystem in a single building will catalyze the next phase of Boston’s impact on life sciences.”
Portal is partnering with Beacon Capital and Zoe Life Sciences, a contract research organization (CRO), “in a joint venture to build out the space and invest in promising life sciences companies.”
Portal Innovations, which also has a presence in Chicago and Atlanta, noted in its news release that the existing Southline building “has a food hall, gym, roof deck, brewpub and a number of other amenities with a campus vibe, seeking to attract world-class biosciences talent in the area.”
Project history. The former Boston Globe headquarters at 135 Morrissey Blvd. was built in 1958. In spring 2017, the Boston Globe moved its newsroom to downtown Boston and its printing operations to Taunton, Mass. In late 2017, a JV of Nordblom Co., a Burlington, Mass.-based real estate firm, and Boston real estate private equity firm Alcion Ventures, acquired the 695,000 square foot building on about 16.61 acres for $81 million.
From 2019 to 2021, Nordblom started work on “a comprehensive core and shell renovation” of the former newspaper headquarters for creative office, technology, light manufacturing, warehouse, life science and retail tenants, marketing the property as –The Boston Exchange for Accelerated Technology, or The BEAT.
In July 2021, BCP Beat Property LLC, a Beacon Capital Partners affiliate, bought out Alcion in a $362.5 million recapitalization of the property, and secured a $423 million mortgage from Goldman Sachs, according to Suffolk County real estate records. Beacon, which has a project called Southline in South San Francisco, rebranded the property Southline Boston and repositioned it to appeal to life sciences users.
To view the Southline expansion project information on the BPDA website, please click here.
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