TLDR: There are a bunch of beautiful, new, empty office biotech labs buildings in Boston. Buildings made to be labs are constructed completely differently than buildings meant to house people (mainly around air and water flow). Therefore turning those labs into anything other than labs (eg housing) will be really, really expensive.
I am officially calling for the city governments around MA to halt all work on lab permitting and inspection in lieu of residential permitting and inspection until such time that lab occupancy in the region reaches at least 90%.
TLDR: There are a bunch of beautiful, new, empty office biotech labs buildings in Boston. Buildings made to be labs are constructed completely differently than buildings meant to house people (mainly around air and water flow). Therefore turning those labs into anything other than labs (eg housing) will be really, really expensive.