CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Last week, the Cambridge Planning Board granted approval to Alexandria Real Estate Equities for the development of a new life sciences campus near Kendall Square in Cambridge. Known as the Binney Street Project, the development will add approximately 1.72 million square feet of high-tech office and laboratory space to an area that already has a major presence in the industry.
“East Cambridge and Kendall Square are real hotbeds of the innovation economy,” says Tom Andrews, senior vice president of Alexandria Real Estate and regional director for its Massachusetts operations. “There are a lot of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, research institutes, and technology companies in this submarket. We think there are a variety of life science and technology companies that may be interested in these parcels.”
The Binney Street Project will be built on five parcels of land totaling 11 acres that are located along Binney Street between First and Third streets. The project will include the construction of five buildings, a mixed-mode transportation center and more than 2 acres of public green space. All of the buildings will be built to LEED specifications.
Presently, the parcels contain older, one- and two-story industrial buildings — a reminder of the neighborhood's past. These days, though, the area is booming with high-tech activity on account of its location just a couple of blocks from the campus of MIT. Alexandria Real Estate does not plan to erase this history, though, opting instead to to preserve some of the buildings.
The Binney Street Project will most likely be built over multiple phases, one building at a time. The construction timetable will be determined by market activity.
“We are working on getting an anchor tenant for one or more of the buildings before we start construction,” Andrews says.
— Coleman Wood