LakePharma out at Worcester biotech campus

Grant Welker A proposed biotechnology office building is proposed for where four vacant cottages once part of the Worcester State Hospital now stand.

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By Grant Welker

The California biologics company expected — but never fully committed — to anchor a planned biomanufacturing campus in Worcester has now pulled out of the project, according to the Worcester Business Development Corp.

In January, Gov. Charlie Baker authorized the state to sell 44 acres of land off Plantation Street in Worcester — the site of the former Worcester State Hospital — to WBDC to develop into a biotechnology hub. The state's decision to award the project to WBDC was based, in part, on the agency have a tenant lined up for the first building.

But LakePharma, a California biologics company expected to be the first tenant, is no longer lined up for the first 100,000-square-foot building, disappointing officials who tried luring the company in part through tax incentives.

Construction won’t start without a major tenant in place, so LakePharma’s absence means the building will have to wait, said Roberta Brien, WBDC vice president of projects, in an interview last week.

LakePharma bought Blue Sky BioServices, based at Worcester’s Gateway Park, last year and had expressed interest in expanding its area operations at the planned WBDC building, although never formally agreed to it. The Silicon Valley-based company didn’t return several messages seeking comment and its Blue Sky offices, since rebranded as LakePharma, said no one at the site could comment.

“They are looking at other sites,” Brien said. “We have not heard anything formally from them.”

The state's sale of the 44 acres by the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to WBDC was expected for completion in June, but is now slated for some time in August, said Brien. At full build-out, the campus is expected to total about 500,000 square feet.