Moderna Relocates to New, 462,000-Square-Foot Kendall Square Headquarters

Cambridge-based biotechnology giant Moderna, known for developing a Covid-19 vaccine, has relocated its headquarters to a new 462,000-square-foot complex at 325 Binney Street in Kendall Square — a move to foster innovation as the company expands its commercial business.

The move comes as biotech companies have flooded Kendall Square, hoping to capitalize on talent from universities in the area, including Harvard and MIT. With rising rent costs and increasingly scarce space in the neighborhood, companies have also turned to Allston and Cambridge’s Alewife neighborhood.

Moderna’s former headquarters are located about half a mile away from the new location, at 200 Technology Square in Kendall Square. As the company expanded, it came to occupy a handful of the surrounding buildings.

The transition to its new headquarters has occurred in stages and nears its end — with the remaining employees set to join over the rest of the year.

The move will allow all Cambridge-based Moderna employees to work in the same building.

“Our mission in building our new headquarters was to create a hub for innovation and collaboration as we build our commercial business, advance our science, and engage with our community,” Moderna spokesperson Jenna Billings wrote in an email to The Crimson.

In an interview with BioSpace, Jamie Kinch, vice president of real estate and corporate facilities at Moderna, said the new space includes an atrium with a communal staircase and breakout areas, numerous research labs, and well-being rooms for lactation, prayer, and meditation.

A barista bar, town hall area and marketplace are expected to come in the following months.

“Our intention was to create a purpose-built space to support the Company’s next chapter of discovery, and the building is representative of that given the diversity of collaboration spaces for teams to come together across the business,” Billings wrote in her email.

Billings added that “the space also showcases our commitment to sustainability.” The company has said that its new headquarters is designed to be the most sustainable laboratory building in Cambridge.

When the Cambridge Planning Board — which advises and approves large development projects across the city — approved the new headquarters in October 2020, they praised the building’s environmental impact mitigation measures.

The development focuses on “mitigating environmental impacts by retaining and maximizing open space, utilizing alternative energy solutions, and achieving high building sustainability standards,” the board wrote.

Located within “a transitional area between the large-scale, high-intensity development pattern in Kendall Square and the smaller, more compact residential development to the north,” the Planning Board added that the building would provide the city with “additional open space and improved public facilities.”

In addition to new bicycle facilities and street trees, the project will support a reconstruction of Binney Street’s sidewalks to ensure that pedestrians and bicycles can freely move along the public way.

Moderna aims for its new headquarters to have “a positive relationship to its surroundings,” the board wrote.