Massive $1.2 Billion MIT Project Planned for Kendall Square

Kendall Square photo by Tony Webster on Flickr/Creative Commons

The booming real estate market around Kendall Square area is about to get a another major boost from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT filed plans with the Cambridge Planning Board on Tuesday that outlined a $1.2 billion proposal that features six new buildings on owned parking lots. Three research and development buildings, two new housing buildings with over 740 residential units, and a retail and office property with at least 100,000 new square feet of space.

The R&D buildings and the retail and office property combined will add approximately one million square feet of new commercial space to an area in desperate need of it. The two residential buildings would be split, one for students and one for the open market. The average one bedroom apartment in Kendall Square rents for $3,360 per month according to a recent study.

The project will leave a total of three acres of open space for the public between the six buildings.

The Cambridge City Council approved the drastic rezoning of the area in 2013 after years of acrimony over the plan. MIT added additional housing units to the proposal in response to the concerns of residents and community groups.

Kendall Square is the hottest apartment market in all of Greater Boston, especially for tech and life science workers. Rents have soared in the area in the last decade but new residential towers have gradually risen from the area’s vacant lots.

Meanwhile, the redevelopment of the Volpe Center in the heart of Kendall Square remains a possibility on the horizon.