Wellesley office-to-lab conversion a bust, now headed to auction
The Wellesley office complex at 93 Worcester St.—pitched with utmost confidence by an investment firm just three years ago as a future life sciences hub—is headed to the auction block in July. Banker & Tradesman (subscription may be required) first reported the news this week.
Beacon Capital’s Steve Purpura during town government meetings in 2022 played up his residency in Wellesley and touted the seemingly endless business and employment opportunities that bringing bio tech to this office complex could result in. Though even at that point, despite impressive marketing slides and numbers trotted out by Beacon Capital, we were writing “Meanwhile, market watchers are keeping an eye on over-saturation and the challenges of finding employees.”
The Beacon Capital website for the property continues to lay things on thickly, citing how the former Harvard Pilgrim Health headquarters space is “nestled in idyllic Wellesley.” Of its “cutting-edge” lab space, Beacon urges innovators to locate at 93 Worcester St.: “Breakthroughs can’t wait for lengthy buildouts and leasing negotiations. Wellesley Gateway’s Beacon Ready Labs are designed by industry experts in partnership with our in-house team to get you to the bench faster, so you can focus on new discoveries.”
More: Public welcome at Wellesley Gateway office park cafeterias
Despite scoring $86.7 million in financing, one of Beacon’s initial challenges was convincing the town to allow conversion of the office complex to bio tech uses. Beacon even took some town officials on a field trip to The Beat, lab space in Boston that once housed the Boston Globe
This was new territory for Wellesley, though town decision makers were able to look to other communities across the state to see how they were handling such business proposals as they emerged left and right. Natick was going through a similar process as it weighed the conversion of the Neiman Marcus space at Natick Mall for lab use—another project that didn’t pan out for life sciences, unless you consider the pickleball business that opened in the space to be a life science. (Natick does have a success in the ABI-LAB space along and behind Rte. 9 east.)
Beacon also faced resistance from neighbors concerned about the safety of bio labs operating near their homes. Some urged the town to adopt bio safety regulations before allowing life sciences companies to locate here.
Once Beacon got the Planning Board’s blessing for a special permit in July of 2022, we never were able to get the company to respond to inquiries about progress in enticing labs to open there. Beacon actually got the town’s permission for lab space later in 2022 for its other Gateway property across the highway at 110 Worcester St.
Market watcher Colliers says nearly 30% of suburban Boston life sciences office space is vacant.