After lying nearly empty for two years, the former CytoTherapeutics facilities in Lincoln is primed to add new biomedical tenants — a sign that Rhode Island’s biotechnology industry might be recovering from the loss of its largest player.
Stem Cells Inc. (formerly CytoTherapeutics) left Lincoln for California in July 1999, leaving vacant its 62,000 square-foot headquarters and two smaller lab buildings. Until recently, only a few small firms had filled a fraction of the available space.
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But there has been growing interest in the facilities from biomedical companies. In late March, Pan Pacific Pharmaceuticals Inc., a small biopharmaceutical firm, set up shop in a portion of CytoTherapeutics’ former headquarters building at 701 George Washington Highway.
The three buildings have garnered interest from smaller biomedical companies because there is a relative lack of affordable lab space available in the area for smaller firms, according to Kurt Last, president of Warwick-based Specialty Operations Solutions.
The firm advises biotech and medical-device companies on planning and running their operations.
“Ten (thousand) or 20,000 square feet is a manageable space for a small company, and there’s not a lot of built-out GMP (good manufacturing practices) facilities of that size available,” said Last, a former CytoTherapeutics executive who helped design and build the facilities.
GMP guidelines are operational standards established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Last said the lab space in the buildings is built to GMP specifications.
Also, the costs of doing business in Cambridge, Mass., a national biotech hotbed, are high, Last said. “It’s ridiculously expensive in Cambridge, so Rhode Island should continue to get attention from (biotech) companies,” he said.
Hunneman Real Estate Corp. of Boston is now marketing the buildings for Stem Cells. Hunneman Vice President Joe Flynn confirmed that a number of biotech firms are interested in the buildings. He said he hopes to sign a tenant within the next few months to lease the building at Six Court Drive, a 21,000 square-foot lab facility.
“We’ve had quite a bit of interest in the building, and one party in particular who is serious about purchasing it,” Flynn said.
Although Flynn declined to say what company is interested, sources have said that the potential buyer is Cambridge-based Millennium Pharmaceuticals — one of the country’s largest biotech firms, with 1,300 employees and a market capitalization of more than $8 billion. The company apparently is eyeing the building for manufacturing operations.
A small manufacturer already occupies the 3,000 square-foot lab facility at One Court Drive.
At the former CytoTherapeutics headquarters on George Washington Highway, Pan Pacific employs 10 people and occupies roughly 18,000 square feet of lab and office space, or roughly one-third of the building. The company, which relocated from Menlo Park, Calif., develops pharmaceuticals derived from traditional Chinese medicines.
“This is a company that chose Rhode Island after looking all over the country for a place to relocate,” Last said. “It’s a good thing for the state’s biotech industry.”
Also occupying space at the former headquarters is Wisconsin-based Gilson Inc., which has been using about 7,000 square feet of space for more than a year, Flynn said. Gilson manufactures analytical instruments for pharmaceutical and biotech customers.
With the addition of Pan Pacific, roughly 12,000 square feet of lab room and 25,000 square feet of office space remains unoccupied in the former headquarters on George Washington Highway, Flynn said.
