This story originally appeared in the Dorchester Reporter on Thursday, December 1, 2022.
A workforce training center focused on jobs in the life sciences is expected to open next year inside the former Boston Globe headquarters at 135 Morrissey Boulevard, according to a joint announcement by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio), a trade group, and Beacon Capital Partners, a real estate investment firm that worked with the developer Nordblom Co. on the redevelopment of the property.
The 4,000 square-foot facility will have three “fast-track” certificate training programs for those looking for a career as a technician or a lab assistant.
Developers first dubbed the 700,000 square-foot former Globe headquarters as “The BEAT,” a nod to reporters who had worked inside it from 1958 to its closing and sale in 2017. The building has since been renamed Southline, partly a nod to the facility’s location south of Boston proper. The space is geared toward life science companies affiliated with Flagship Pioneering, a biotech venture firm, and Nobull, a sportswear company.
Looking ahead, the developers are seeking to build a six-story building, also focused on biotech space, behind the former newspaper facility next to the Southeast Expressway.
The training center is expected to offer lab space, classrooms, and programming to deal with workforce shortages and skills gaps, as well as help with “our deep desire to bring underrepresented and marginalized individuals into the life sciences industry,” Kendalle Burlin O’Connell, MassBIO’s president and chief operating officer, said in a statement.