Weekend Interview: MIT's Maureen McCaffrey On Building The Life Sciences Industry's Hub

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Maureen McCaffrey has been in the life sciences game since the beginning. She has spent the last 20 years with the organization that she credits with conceiving the life sciences sector, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The anchor of Cambridge's Kendall Square, MIT is the alma mater of Phil Sharp, who won the 1993 Nobel Prize for his co-discovery of RNA splicing, and the university has helped support the growth of the life sciences industry's largest hub.

Over two decades with MIT Investment Management Co., the institution's investment arm, McCaffrey has helped to bring 1M SF of life sciences space to Kendall Square, and it has another 3M SF mixed-use redevelopment in the pipeline. Earlier this week, MIT filed new plans for the project with changes that aim to make room for "middle-market" life sciences companies that are actively looking for space in an industry that has slowed its activity over the last year. 

McCaffrey said the life sciences industry is dealing with an imbalance of supply and demand and a lack of venture capital funding, but she thinks MIT's portfolio and Kendall Square remain well-positioned, and she sees opportunity, "even in a downturn."

Her efforts aren't limited to just her work at one of the most prestigious research institutions in the nation. In June, McCaffrey was named president of CREW Boston at a time when the chapter is working to promote diversity through strategic growth.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Bisnow: In June, you became the president of CREW Boston for the 2023-2024 year. What do you hope to accomplish in this new role?

McCaffrey: That's a great question. We just, in the last year, updated our strategic plan, and one of the key initiatives is increasing diversity among our membership. We've benefited over several years from organic growth. We’re the largest chapter of the CREW network and, for us, we're thinking more about how do we go about strategic growth instead of just organic growth. We're excited because we've launched this initiative with the board, and we'll be engaging the members of the organization to work on outreach and programs. That's what I really want for us to be able to achieve in this next year.

Of course, for all of us at CREW, there's a desire for mentorship and partnership where women in the industry can learn from one another, build their skills and confidence in network and really change the future of the industry by broadening the leadership roles of women.

Bisnow: I saw that you had a number of LinkedIn posts dedicated to uplifting women in commercial real estate, whether that's reposts from CREW Boston, or talking about your own colleagues at MITIMCo. In this new role as president, how do you hope to further promote and boost women in the commercial real estate space?

McCaffrey: There's probably two pieces of that. There are women in my organization at MIT, who I think benefit from having more voices around the table. Years ago, there might not have been any female voices at the table. I think what's been positive for the industry is in the last 10 years, there's definitely been an improvement in the number of women who are involved in commercial real estate and an improvement in the number of women leaders. There still isn't parity there, of course, right? Certainly, there's a desire on the part of the CREW organization to help women achieve leadership roles.

That's really part of the focus, in particular of the mentoring program, with women who are newer to the industry having an opportunity to learn from women whom we like to call 'seasoned' women in the industry. They have had the exposure of being around for a number of years, and potentially helping other women see where there are opportunities. More than that, do not focus on the notion that you have to wait to be asked to do something. I think that's where the network at CREW is most beneficial to the members. You might be sitting at a table with somebody who's an engineer, or an architect, or a broker, or a developer, or whatever the case might be. There's a real depth of expertise within the organization.

Bisnow: Since you mentioned “seasoned” professionals, you've been at MITIMCo. for almost 22 years, and half of that time, you served as director. How has the company's real estate portfolio evolved in the decade that you've helped to build and manage it?

McCaffrey: When I started, most of your audience was too young to remember what was referred to at the time as the dot-com bust. It was an interesting time to start in real estate development because that was also the early stage of life sciences development. In our office, we were doing a conversion of a small portfolio. It was a 1M SF development that we were converting a portion of to life science uses. That was really the initial kickoff of our life science portfolio, effectively.

That was 20 years ago, and since that time, we have either redeveloped office buildings into lab, we have developed ground-up close to 1M SF of life sciences space and, of course, we're in the process of planning and permitting another 3M SF of mixed-use, which is office, lab, residential and ground-floor retail. There's a broad part of our development over the last 20 years that was focused on life sciences and ground-floor activation and creating an environment where people would want to come to work, that people would want to live near.

Bisnow: You've helped plan and develop 3M SF of commercial real estate projects in Kendall Square. Do any of these projects stick out to you in your time at MIT? Are there any projects that you think back to and are like 'Wow, this is the work that I do'?

McCaffrey: It's so funny. It's so hard to pick just one because each one is so different from the other. When I think of working on the Broad Institute's first building in Kendall Square, that was a tremendous opportunity to create a location for the work that was the Human Genome Project. I loved that project. For all the interesting science, each floor was entirely different from the next.

My favorite project is my most recent project, which was 238 Main St., because it's a beautiful, historic existing brick building with a clock tower. It's so iconic. You see it as you come over the Longfellow Bridge. It is Kendall Square and it's called the Kendall Building.

I'll say the only other one I would pick would be 640 Memorial Drive, which was called the Ford Assembly Building. It's a 220K SF building, kind of like a high-rise lying on its side. It's five stories, and it's right on the river at the BU Bridge circle. It's where Ford Model A's were constructed and there's all these great legacy stories about test driving these cars on the roof of the building. We built this beautiful penthouse screen for all of the mechanical equipment that's needed for a life sciences building.

Bisnow: What role has MIT had in building this market up to what it is today?

McCaffrey: Our office created life sciences real estate. It's because of MIT that life sciences exist as an industry. Phil Sharp coming out of MIT and is still a faculty member, a co-founder of Biogen and the the first person to really put mRNA on the map.

It was really MIT that began what I would call life sciences real estate with some of the work at University Park, a 26-acre development parcel on the west side of Mass Ave. At the time, our office had partnered with Forest City to do the development there. There were some life science companies that grew there.

Our office redeveloped Tech Square, the Osborn Triangle, the Broad Institute, the Kendall Square Initiative, the Volpe development parcel, and we have life science buildings in Cambridge port — all of those things are things that MIT did as commercial real estate development. It's the human capital at MIT, that's such a draw for life science companies to come to Kendall Square. MIT was founded on the notion that faculty would teach and practice. They're teaching at the Institute and bringing that research out into the commercial marketplace. You have an innovation, translation, commercialization kind of theme that really comes from MIT and the life science industry is just another one of those growth paths that comes from MIT. That, to me, is really why MIT is such a critical component of the origin of life science real estate.

Bisnow: I want to touch on the state of the life sciences market today. New developments have become harder to start with rising interest rates and construction costs. In addition to that, Cambridge last year increased the linkage fees on new commercial projects. How are these issues impacting MIT, and how are you navigating them? 

McCaffrey: To speak just generally about the life science real estate industry today, there clearly is a point right now where there is more supply than there is demand as a function of a lack of venture capital at the moment. You see the stories about life science companies, even small pharma, have had layoffs and staff reductions. There’s not much consideration for growth at the moment. And yet, there are other companies that are certainly expanding, the difference is that the availability of space still exceeds the need.

I think, in part, because of the reduction in available venture capital, there’s just a gap in the availability of certain companies to grow to the next stage. Certainly, other established companies have been going through cuts, as you mentioned, so that to me is the snapshot of where we are today in the market. There’s always opportunity, even in a downturn.

In Kendall Square, I think we benefit from a very robust desire for people to be in the proximity of MIT and other life science companies. We have a great mix in our portfolio of startup companies and incubator companies. Our LabCentral, for example, is a great tenant of ours. They're the place where small startups want to go and, and test out their science and potentially achieve funding for growth. Where there's a great opportunity, there's always a flight to quality at a time like this, and certainly, some portfolios will benefit from that.

I believe our portfolio, not just because of its geography, but of course, it's the quality of our projects, is something that's a real benefit and advantage for us. I would say there are other benefits too, as a function of certain spaces that come back to landlords. If there's an opportunity to think about planning and re-evaluating space that might need to be refurbished or upgrades that you want to make. There’s always opportunity during a downturn, but in particular, I like to think it's a great time to be planning and thinking about your next steps and potentially making improvements where you might have opportunities.

Bisnow: Give us a bold prediction for the rest of the year.

McCaffrey: My bold prediction will be that we're going to remain in a little bit of uncertainty for the foreseeable future.

Bisnow: Because this is a weekend interview, what is your weekend routine or favorite weekend activity?

McCaffrey: My favorite weekend activity really is road biking, but I've had an injury since February that has precluded me from riding my bike the entire summer so it's been devastating. My typical weekend this time of year would definitely involve a lovely morning ride somewhere, hopefully at the Cape, that would be my preference. I also do an awful lot of gardening. So I would definitely be hauling around a whole bunch of weeds and treatments.

CORRECTION, SEPT. 11, 10:05 A.M. ET: A previous version of this story misstated the names of the Osborn Triangle development and the BU Bridge circle. This story has been updated.