Cummings Properties Media Release - March 23, 2009

Covaris Expands and Extends at Gill Street Life Sciences Cluster
Cummings Properties Media Release

Woburn, MA - Covaris, Inc., a rapidly growing life science instrument company, has extended its lease with Cummings Properties and expanded its space by 50 percent to more than 14,000 square feet at 14 Gill Street.

Formed in 1999, privately held Covaris is focused on instrumentation for advanced biological and chemical applications. Its proprietary instrument platform, based on patented Adaptive Focused Acoustic technology, brings unsurpassed speed and efficiency to biological and chemical sample preparation. Leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide are using Covaris instruments for Next Gen DNA Sequencing sample prep, RNA extraction, compound dissolution, drug metabolism tissue extraction and much more.

Tony Spencer, Cummings Properties' leasing/property manager, represented it in the lease expansion and extension. Spencer noted that Covaris reportedly looked at other locations, but elected to expand at Gill Street due in part to affordable lease rates, guarantee of expansion space and proximity to amenities and other life science firms. Covaris represented itself in the lease transaction.

James Laugharn, President of Covaris, added, "Woburn continues to be an invaluable location for our company as it is both near our key suppliers and is readily accessible to one of our major customer market segments, namely the pharmaceutical and biotechnology community of the greater metropolitan Boston area."

Spencer commented, "We strive to deliver high-quality laboratory, flex and office space on attractive terms to life science companies at every stage of development. With our design/build delivery method, we are uniquely qualified to satisfy almost any commercial space need."

Covaris is located in Cummings Properties' Gill Street Life Sciences Cluster, which is home to more than two dozen well-established and start-up life sciences firms. It is situated minutes away from Interstate 95/Route 128 and just 11 miles from Boston. The Life Sciences Cluster is located in a thriving business area that includes retail stores, restaurants and hotels.

Cummings Properties is a commercial real estate development company in Woburn, which reportedly has one of the state's highest concentrations of life science firms. More than 100 life science firms are said to lease more than 1.5 million square feet from Cummings Properties. Spaces range from incubator labs to sophisticated clean rooms.