Lab Space for Tech and Hardware Startups

Lab space means something different for an electronics bring-up team, a battery group and a materials company. A team soldering boards may fit in a modified office. A team using solvents or heating samples may need something different entirely. The search cannot start until someone writes down what will actually happen in the room.

A Boston architect writing in Banker & Tradesman recommends that a life science company work with its environmental health and safety vendor to list the chemicals it will use before looking for space. We think the same advice carries over to hardware companies. That list drives nearly every question in this guide.

• ✓What processes will we run: assembly, soldering, testing, machining, chemistry, curing?
• ✓Which chemicals, gases or batteries will we keep or use, and in what quantities?
• ✓What fumes, dust, heat, noise or vibration will we produce?
• ✓Which equipment do we plan to use, and what does each piece need for power, exhaust, water and compressed air?
• ✓Will any waste need special handling?
• ✓Who is our engineer and who is our safety professional for this project?

Those people decide the requirements. We help find and negotiate space that meets them, and we are not the ones to determine whether a room is safe or compliant.

Two separate permissions apply, and you need both. The first is zoning. The US Small Business Administration advises checking that a property conforms to local zoning, notes that ordinances can restrict or ban some businesses in an area, and says these rules are usually controlled locally. Ask the city, or have your attorney or architect confirm. Do not rely on a listing that says flex or lab.

The second is the lease. The use clause describes what you may do in the space. A clause that only permits general office use may not allow lab work, even if the zoning does. It is worth describing your actual activity in the clause, and asking whether the landlord's other leases, or the building's rules, restrict what you plan to do. Hazardous materials clauses deserve the same care, since they can restrict what you bring in and set out what you owe at the end of the term.

Ask for the use clause and the hazardous materials clause to be drafted around your actual materials list, and have your attorney check that they match each other.

Ventilation is often the point at which an office building stops working as a lab. Ordinary office air systems may recirculate air, and exhaust from a hood or a process has to go somewhere. Your engineer has to determine what you need, and whether the building has a route for it.

If you use hazardous chemicals on a laboratory scale, the OSHA Laboratory Standard (29 CFR 1910.1450) may apply. It covers employers engaged in the laboratory use of hazardous chemicals, as that standard defines it, and excludes production processes. Employers covered must carry out a written Chemical Hygiene Plan, which has to include a requirement that fume hoods and other protective equipment are functioning properly. It is a duty on your company as the employer, whatever the lease says. Ask your safety professional whether it applies to you, or whether other OSHA standards do.

• ✓Does the building's air system recirculate, and can lab exhaust be kept separate?
• ✓Is there a physical route to the roof or an exterior wall for ducts, and will the landlord allow it?
• ✓Is there space and structural capacity on the roof for fans?
• ✓Is there enough make-up air, and who verifies it?
• ✓Who maintains and tests hoods and exhaust, and who pays?
• ✓What must we remove or restore at the end of the lease?

Lab equipment often needs power different from what an office suite offers, and it may need more of it. Have your engineer build an equipment schedule, then have an electrician or engineer compare it to what the suite and the building can really deliver. Marketing flyers rarely answer this.

• ✓What voltage and phase does the equipment need, and is that available at the suite?
• ✓What spare capacity is on the panel, and in the building's riser or service?
• ✓Can the landlord's system handle the heat our equipment produces, or do we need supplemental cooling?
• ✓Do we need process water, drains, compressed air or specialty gas lines? Where would they run?
• ✓Does anything need backup power, and could we install a generator or UPS?
• ✓Is floor strength or vibration a concern for any equipment?
• ✓Will the landlord make these upgrades, or will we pay and then have to remove them?

Upgrades take time and money, so they should be priced and scheduled before you commit. Our guides to building electrical capacity and to supplemental cooling cover those questions in more detail.

This is where a building can say no, even when the suite looks perfect. Fire and building codes limit hazardous material quantities in defined parts of a building, usually called control areas. The Banker & Tradesman article explains that the allowable amount decreases for each story above the ground floor. It also notes that, in some existing buildings, the rest of the building may be treated as a single control area, which limits what any one tenant can use.

So a higher floor, or a neighbor already using a building's allowance, can limit your work. Local adoption varies, and that article describes practice in the Boston area, including chemical use licenses and permits. Ask your architect, safety professional and the local authority what applies where you are looking.

Waste is a separate question. The EPA sorts hazardous waste generators into categories based on how much they produce in a month, with different requirements for each, and notes that state categories can differ from federal ones. If you use lithium-ion batteries, OSHA's guidance lists limiting stored quantities, referring to NFPA 800 and NFPA 855, and following manufacturer instructions for storage, use and charging.

1. Give your safety professional the materials list and the candidate address.
2. Ask the landlord what other tenants' uses, and the building's prior permits, leave available to you.
3. Have your architect confirm the applicable code path with the local building and fire authorities.
4. Make the lease conditional on obtaining key approvals where you can, or at least give yourself a way out if they fail.
5. Have your insurer review the materials list before you sign.
6. Set out in the lease who holds which permits, and what environmental condition you must leave the space in.

Lab-capable space is harder to compare than office space, because a low rent can hide a large conversion cost. Compare each option on the total cost to make it work: rent, the upgrades, the time to approval and the cost of removal at the end.

We advise tenants in office and industrial space, and we can run a search like this one alongside your engineers: narrowing the list, putting their requirements in front of landlords early, and negotiating the use clause, the upgrade responsibilities and the exit terms. If what you are planning sits between office and industrial, our guide to office, flex, lab or industrial space is a good next step.