Boston Area Life Sciences Lease Termination Triggers Dispute

A tenant and landlord are in dispute over 104,000 square feet of life sciences space outside of Boston.

At the end of last month, Generation Bio informed CS Capital Management that it intended to leave its lease at 41 Seyon Street in the suburb of Waltham. The tenant claimed the landlord breached its obligations to the company, which the landlord disputes, according to Bisnow.

The spat began last week with a filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The alleged breach in obligation was, however, not disclosed. Neither company commented to Bisnow regarding the dispute.

What is clear is that CS Capital isn’t letting Generation Bio leave without a fight. The landlord informed Generatio Bio, a biotech company, that it doesn’t have the right to terminate its lease.

The lease covers approximately 16 percent of CenterPoint, a three-building, 615,000-square-foot life sciences campus. Generation Bio uses its space as a good manufacturing practice facility while maintaining headquarters in Kendall Square, a district in Cambridge.

There are a couple of factors that could be driving the dispute.

For one, CS Capital wasn’t the landlord when Generation Bio inked its lease in July 2021. At the time, Hilco Real Estate was the owner of the campus. Hilco sold it last January to CS Capital — a California-based investment firm with $848 million in assets under management — for $578 million.

There may also be financial considerations in play for Generation Bio, which works to develop non-viral genetic medicines to treat rare diseases. In November, the company was forced to cut 40 percent of its staff, including two key executives, to save an estimated $120 million and extend its runway to 2027.

Boston is one of the top life sciences markets in the nation, in part due to its proximity to major universities such as Harvard and MIT. Activity and demand has slowed in recent quarters, however, while projects keep coming to the forefront. Two months ago, Greystar filed forms in connection to a plan for a 1.4-million-square-foot property in Somerville, which would be mostly lab space.

— Holden Walter-Warner