Biogen to Move Global Headquarters to Kendall Commons in 2028

Cambridge-based biotechnology company Biogen Inc. announced Monday that it will move its global headquarters to a new building in Kendall Square in 2028, consolidating its various branches and operations into a single “innovation hub” while drawing the company still closer to nearby MIT.

The biopharma giant has signed a 15-year lease for 585,000 square feet of space at 75 Broadway St., within the Kendall Common complex owned and run by MIT. The opening of the new headquarters will coincide with the company’s 50th anniversary.

“It’s fitting that Biogen — a company with such close ties to people at MIT — will make Kendall Common’s first building its new home,” said Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, in a press release.

Kornbluth praised Biogen’s decision to stay in Kendall Square as leases on the company’s various Kendall Square locations are set to expire over the next few years.

“The motto of Kendall Square might as well be ‘talent in proximity’ and Biogen’s decision to intensify its presence here promises great things for the whole ecosystem,” Kornbluth said.

Keeping Biogen in Cambridge was of particular importance to MIT, according to Patrick Rowe, senior vice president of the university’s real estate group.

“The company’s nearly 50-year history is a foundational component of the Kendall Square innovation ecosystem,” Rowe said in an MIT press release.

Biogen was co-founded by MIT professor Philip Sharp in 1978 in Geneva, Switzerland, and opened its first U.S facility in 1983 in Kendall Square.

The Biogen development is a joint venture between the MIT Investment Management Company — which manages the university’s endowment and real estate — and BioMed Realty, an affiliate of private equity giant Blackstone and one of the biggest owners of lab space in the Boston area.

Boston commercial developer Mark Tang called the joint project a “very rare opportunity” both for MIT and for a company like Biogen looking to occupy a prime location in Kendall Square, pointing to the size and location of the site. Kendall Common’s proximity to MIT and to the Red Line make it a valuable location, he said.

In highly developed Kendall Square, 10 acres of contiguous real estate open for new development is almost unheard-of. When MIT bought the parcel from the U.S. government in 2017, they paid $750 million for it.

“That’s in an area that’s the so-called ‘most innovative square mile in the world,’” Tang said

The full parcel, at 14 acres, formerly held the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, owned by the federal government. After the General Services Administration decided in 2014 that the parcel was underutilized, it sold the site to MIT two years later after considering several bids. The university gained the rights to build on 10 acres of the parcel after agreeing to redevelop the remaining four acres into a new, consolidated government administrative building.

“Just being so close to Boston and the T stop, it does represent a unique opportunity,” Tang said.

Construction on the first building, which will house Biogen, is set to begin in 2025.

Tang said that the unique nature of the larger Kendall Common project as a large, contiguous parcel of land provides the opportunity to create a development that will not only benefit the life sciences sector, but the surrounding Kendall Square community.

“It’s nearly contiguous, right? That's the other thing. From a land planning perspective, you can really think through how all of the buildings can connect and play off of each other,” Tang said.

The company’s recommitment to staying in Cambridge also represents a continued reversal from previous forays into cheaper locations in the suburbs of Boston. Biogen briefly moved its headquarters out to Weston, a town 30 minutes from Kendall Square, in 2010 before quickly announcing it would move back to Cambridge a year later.

At the time, the company told the Boston Globe that the Weston location was “geographically separated” from its other buildings in Kendall Square, calling the location “a barrier.” They have since maintained a small presence in the town subleasing lab space.

Massachusetts governor Maura T. Healey ’92 called Biogen a “foundational presence” in the Massachusetts life sciences landscape.

“This milestone is an example of why Massachusetts remains the center for long-term growth and opportunity in the life sciences. Our administration continues to make investments in the sector in order to help create more companies and jobs that lead to innovative new treatments for patients,” she said.

“The decision by Biogen today to develop a new hub here goes to the very core of what makes this ecosystem great: collaboration, talent, and institutions,” said Kendalle Burlin O’Connell, Chief Executive Officer & President of MassBio.

—Staff writer Stephanie Dragoi can be reached at stephanie.dragoi@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Thamini Vijeyasingam can be reached at thamini.vijeyasingam@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @vijeyasingam.