SmartLabs Exits Biotech Co-Working Facilities in South SF

SmartLabs will shut the doors on 225,000 square feet of biotech labs in South San Francisco and take its marbles back to the East Coast.

The Boston-based life science co-working office provider is closing its 80,000-square-foot office at 2 Tower Place and a 145,000-square-foot office that never opened at 750 Gateway Boulevard, the Boston Business Journal reported.

The Tower Place location, part of the Phase 3 Real Estate Partners’ Genesis project, was the first outside Beantown for SmartLabs — billed as a cross between an incubator, WeWork and a clinical research organization.

The Gateway Boulevard location was part of BioMed Realty’s Gateway of Pacific development, and was expected to open this year with 28 bio-production manufacturing suites in clean-room environments.

Financial terms of the retrenchment from South San Francisco were not disclosed.

The company, founded in 2015, had been gearing up for a strong Bay Area presence, beginning with a beachhead in South San Francisco, dubbed the “birthplace of biotechnology.” The city is home to Genentech and 200 biotech companies that last year occupied 11.5 million square feet.

Last year, SmartLabs was in talks to take over the 80,000-square-foot former Old Navy headquarters in Mission Bay, and had bought two other sites late last year in South San Francisco.

SmartLabs now says it plans to retrench with a focus on East Coast markets “where the company can bring the greatest strategic value based on current market dynamics.”

The firm said it will continue to offer “custom design solutions” on the West Coast to help clients design and build their own modern, flexible lab spaces.

“We are committed to enabling a smooth transition for our affected customers in the Bay Area and are confident this strategic move will enhance our capacity to better serve our growing client base on the East Coast,” Brian Taylor, interim CEO for SmartLabs, said in a statement.

“As we move forward, SmartLabs will continue to evaluate markets in which to invest where we can offer the greatest impact.”

The move comes as the biopharmaceutical industry starts to show signs of recovery after two-plus years of stagnant growth, according to the Business Times.

The chill, on Wall Street and in venture capital, led several individual drug makers to zero in on closer-to-market drug-development programs, cut jobs, pull back on real estate commitments and find other ways to extend their cash runways.

SmartLabs provides research-and-development suites, process development and animal lab suites, pilot manufacturing and private offices. It operates five Boston-area sites and has expanded into Philadelphia.

In January, the company landed a $48 million Series C round, following a $250 million round in September 2021, as co-founder and onetime CEO Amrit Chaudhuri left his executive post.

— Dana Bartholomew