Fresh off the closing of a $350 million funding round, artificial intelligence startup Lila Sciences is leasing 244,000 square feet at IQHQ’s Alewife Park laboratory campus in Cambridge. It’s one of the largest life science real estate deals in Greater Boston this year, a rare bright spot for a once-hot lab market that has gone flat.
Lila incubated with Cambridge’s Flagship Pioneering and emerged from stealth mode in March. Flagship was part of a group that seeded an initial $200 million into the company. Geoffrey von Maltzahn, a general partner at Flagship and CEO of Lila, said the company aims to “responsibly achieve scientific superintelligence” by bringing AI to the scientific method.
“This is the most important opportunity of our time, and that the leader in this pursuit will be the entity that runs the scientific method at the largest scale, speed and intelligence,” von Maltzahn said in a statement then.
The lease is a notable win for lab space developer IQHQ, which is turning the old W.R. Grace plant in North Cambridge into a sprawling life science complex and has multiple vacant lab projects across Cambridge and Boston. Some 46.2 percent of lab space in Cambridge’s Alewife submarket was available to lease in the third quarter, according to data from brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. Available space is property available either for a direct lease or for a sublease.
Lila intends to stay in West Cambridge for the long term, said Darrell Smith Sr., Lila’s director of real estate and facilities, in a statement.
“Alewife Park has a unique combination of qualities suited to Lila’s growth needs in addition to the well-being of our employees,” he said.
IQHQ has plans for five office and lab buildings at Alewife Park, a 26.5-acre campus near the MBTA Alewife Red Line station. Lila will take the top floor of 1 Alewife Park and all of 5 Alewife Park, said Ryan Weber, senior vice president of leasing.
Tracy Murphy, president of IQHQ, said in a statement that the company looked forward to a long-term partnership with Lila.
“Lila Sciences is redefining what’s possible in scientific research, and we’re proud to provide the foundation for their next phase of growth,” Murphy said. “Alewife Park’s scale, design, transportation access, and amenities uniquely position the campus to support transformative companies in one of the country’s most dynamic life science ecosystems.”
Beyond the Alewife Park campus, IQHQ’s local portfolio includes some 340,000 square feet of lab and office space in Andover, two lab buildings near Fenway Park and plans for a 1 million-square-foot tower above the Massachusetts Turnpike, among other properties. It owns the vacant Buckminster Hotel, and in January sold an approved lab development site at 103 N. Beacon St. in Brighton to the real estate arm of footwear giant New Balance.
Catherine Carlock can be reached at catherine.carlock@globe.com. Follow her @bycathcarlock.
