74M | Purpose-Built Lab 74 Middlesex Ave

Somerville is a city rapidly in transition. With its abundance of well-educated residents and its prime access to transit, it is increasingly recognized as a growth area. Several substantial developments have transformed the city. Assembly Row in East Somerville, for example, has turned a once-isolated industrial area into a vibrant live/work/play location by adding a new stop on the Orange Line and a bevy of high-end retail and apartments. Partner’s Healthcare, the state’s largest employer, calls this community home, as will shoemaker PUMA, which will move its U.S. headquarters here by the end of 2020.

However, the real transformation for Somerville is likely still on the horizon. The state is currently underway on the $2.3 billion Green Line Extension, set to wrap up in the latter half of 2021. The 4.3-mile subway will provide rail service to some of the densely populated parts of metropolitan Boston and provide connections from Tufts University to downtown Boston and beyond. Developers are already betting on the project’s impact, and millions of square feet of office, lab, multifamily, and retail space is underway or planned from Somerville’s Union Square to Boynton Yards. This transit stop, coupled with a major recent rezoning by the City of Somerville, may lay the framework for further development in the neighborhood.

Somerville is attractive to many firms based on its affordable rents and close proximity to Cambridge and downtown Boston. CoStar’s data indicate that rents for the City of Somerville are around half those in Cambridge despite sharing a border.