When the BIO Convention last came to Boston in 2018, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center was one of the Seaport District’s few attractions, beyond a smattering of hotels and industrial parks.

 
Five years later, that neighborhood has exploded into a life sciences destination. Commercial real estate firm Newmark estimates that there were almost 3.4 million square feet of biotech space in the Seaport in the first quarter of 2023. That’s more than quadruple the 830,562 square feet that stood five years prior.

 
The rise of the Seaport is yet another result of Massachusetts’ emergence as the country’s foremost life sciences leader over the past two decades — what Foundation Medicine CEO Brian Alexander called “the Florence of biotech” at an industry event in April.

 
A lot has changed in just the last five years. The number of life sciences jobs in the state has grown 52%, nearing 113,000 in 2021, the latest year for which figures are available. The average life sciences worker’s annual salary has grown in lockstep, topping out at more than $201,000 last year. So, too, has funding: $8.72 billion in venture capital in 2022 — 82% growth over 2018 — and another $3.3 billion in National Institutes of Health dollars the same year.

 
“As a point of pride, as someone who grew up here in Boston and used to spend a lot of time in Kendall Square before it looked anything like it does today, it’s been a transformation for our city that biotech has become such a successful industry,” said Andrew Hack, a partner with Bain Capital Life Sciences. “It’s exciting to have BIO in our own backyard, because biotech is such an important part of this city.”

 
By Rowan Walrwath

 
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