In her annual commentary for Banker & Tradesman’s life sciences issue, MassBio CEO & President Kendalle Burlin O’Connell calls on the real estate community to help Massachusetts keep the next generation of biotech companies here.
The leases signed this year were set in motion by seed rounds raised three and four years ago. The seed rounds happening now are the tenant demand of 2030, and those are shrinking. How much of the 63.2 million square feet of lab and manufacturing real estate inventory in this state remains empty at the end of the decade is being decided right now.
We are not asking you to cut rents. We are asking you to structure deals a young company can sign. I say that knowing your lenders underwrite on term length and tenant credit, and that a 12-person company is a hard signature.
Our members continue to raise the same things with us. Shorter initial terms with expansion rights. Smaller suites built out and ready to occupy. Tenant improvement packages sized to a company’s real runway. Security deposit and letter of credit requirements scaled to stage. And smaller line items that move more easily than rent, starting with what you charge for parking.
Read the full op-ed in Banker & Tradesman.
