The market for laboratory space in Greater Boston is growing tighter, according to a new report, with little space available in Cambridge and vacancy in the City of Boston at just 0.2 percent.
The real estate brokerage Transwestern RBJ reported that science companies and institutions moved into 516,000 square feet of lab space from July to September, pushing the area’s vacancy rate down from 11.6 percent to 9.5 percent. Pharmaceutical company Baxter International’s agreement to lease 200,000 square feet on Kendall Street in Cambridge was the largest lab space deal last quarter, while a 144,000-square-foot expansion by Pfizer was the second-biggest.
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“It’s not surprising to see a second strong reporting period in a row,” Chase Bourdelaise, the company’s research director for the northeast, said in a statement. “We’ve recently had another biopharmaceutical giant announce plans to relocate to Cambridge, while other big-name, large users announced plans to expand their footprints locally.”
An additional 1.9 million square feet of lab space was under construction last quarter that will grow the Greater Boston lab market by more than 10 percent, according to Transwestern’s figures. Most of that space is near Kendall Square in Cambridge, and is scheduled to be finished in 2015 and 2016.
Jack Newsham can be reached at jack.newsham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheNewsHam.