BOSTON – SeromYx Systems is relocating from Cambridge to 299 Washington Street, a Cummings Properties science and technology building in Woburn. The specialist contract research organization recently signed a lease for a custom-built 8,000-square-foot facility.
SeromYx Systems’ Woburn location will house both business and technical operations supporting the development of vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Its proprietary Systems Serology platform integrates approaches to antibody profiling, illuminating the effective ones in an effort to inform the creation of more effectual treatments for a wide variety of disease areas. The firm is actively engaged in projects to help design next generation vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19.
“As we continue to take on more sophisticated projects and expand our workforce, we will need an equally sophisticated facility to house our growing operations,” said SeromYx Systems CEO Piers Whitehead. “Cummings has worked with us to design and build a customized, completely new headquarters that will support our continued growth while enhancing our ability to provide our clients with high-throughput GCLP-certified Systems Serology services.”
Cummings Properties business development director Al Diamond worked with Whitehead and Cresa principal Paul Delaney on the transaction.
“The scarcity of available lab space in greater Boston has many urban firms looking much more quickly to the suburbs as a convenient solution for their space challenges,” said Diamond. “Due in part to this ongoing exodus, inner suburbs like Woburn have become innovation hubs, where science and technology firms find frequent opportunities for synergy and collaboration. The biotech trend to the MetroNorth area has been really dramatic.”
Cummings’ in-house architecture, engineering, and construction teams have designed, financed, and erected an entire new two-story wing at 299 Washington Street to house SeromYx Systems’ Biosafety Level 2 facility. Its corner location features a modern façade with a dedicated building entrance and extensive windows, as well as high ceilings and skylights.
SeromYx Systems was also attracted by the value proposition found in Woburn, according to Diamond.
“Suburban lab space can average between one-half and one-third the rates found in nearby Cambridge and Boston, which leaves companies with more money to invest in growing their operations,” said Diamond.
Among SeromYx Systems’ new nearby neighbors are fellow Cambridge-born biotech firms Alloplex Biotherapeutics, Curie Therapeutics, Minovia Therapeutics, Rational Vaccines, Rgenta Therapeutics, SalioGen Therapeutics, and Vaxess Technologies.
The Washington Street biotech cluster is located at the intersection of I-93 and I-95, within walking distance of the newly redeveloped Woburn Village. This mixed-use site has an outdoor market feel comparable to MarketStreet in Lynnfield and Burlington’s 3rd Avenue complex.
