With many of its employees working from home and others having left for a new spinoff venture, Massachusetts-based bluebird bio decided it was time for a headquarters more suited to its future.
A move from Kendall Square in Cambridge three miles north to Assembly Row along the Mystic River in Somerville will not only suit the changing needs of the company, it will save bluebird $120 million in overhead during the next six years, the company said.
The move is to a 61,000 square foot space, which will be the home to 425 employees next spring. While bluebird said it was establishing a “biotech hub” at Assembly Row, the new flagship company of the development is global sportswear giant Puma, which on Thursday said it has opened its North American headquarters there in a 150,000-square-foot space.
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Bluebird said its new digs will “enable a distributed work model” and allow “increased engagement and productivity” as hybrid work “is here to stay.” The company will retain its lab space in Cambridge through 2023.
“Over the past 18 months, we have transformed the way we work and live as we’ve navigated through the COVID-19 pandemic and re-established ourselves as a company focused on pursuing curative gene therapies,” Jason Cole, chief business officer bluebird bio, said in a statement.
RELATED: Bluebird names oncology spinoff, establishes leadership team
Early this year, 11-year-old bluebird revealed that it was spinning off its oncology unit as 2seventy bio. The company this week completed the spinoff. Bluebird’s former CEO Nick Leschly is leading 2seventy bio while bluebird's former rare disease chief Andrew Obenshain is taking the reins as the company's chief exec.