April 2, 2015By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech behemoth Genzyme Corporation might be vacating its Kendall Square digs as it focuses on building out new headquarters a few blocks away, an executive with the real estate company that leases the building told the Boston Business Journal this week.
Genzyme, a unit of Sanofi, said last week that it would build a huge new central headquarters at 50 Binney Street, with plans for a 250,000-square-foot building that will house around 1,300 workers.
James Cullinan, vice president of marketing of BioMed Realty, told the paper that the firm is already receiving queries from tenants looking over Genzyme’s space when its lease is up in three years. That includes its enormous 50,000-square-foot atrium.
“It’s early, but we’ve got an iconic, 340,000-square-foot building in the heart of Kendall Square. We already have interest in it,” Cullinan told the paper. “We’re feeling really good about it.”
He added he didn’t think the building, which he referred to as a “tourist destination” and which was primarily designed by former Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer, would need to rip out the atrium, despite the lost space.
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” he said.
