Life science developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities has acquired one of the last industrial parcels in Cambridge’s Kendall Square for $80.25 million.

The chance to acquire the 3.6-acre property at 303 Binney St. attracted more than 20 potential buyers, primarily national multifamily developers and life science REIT’s, said Juan Prieto, a principal at Boston-based Davenport Advisors LLC which advised sellers Metropolitan Pipe & Supply.

“It really became obvious the biotech REIT’s were going to be more aggressive,” Prieto said.

The property is less than a block from Alexandria’s One Kendall Square complex which it acquired last fall for $725 million.

“It’s a great site and another smart acquisition for Alexandria,” said Mark Winters, an executive managing director for Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. “It’s additive to their project at One Kendall Square, and that’s the classic Cambridge incubator facility as far as companies being hatched and outgrowing their space. So having this site adjacent to it makes a lot of sense.”

Pasadena, California-based Alexandria’s nearby development pipeline includes the 431,500-square-foot 100 Binney St. office and lab complex, which contains the largest contiguous block of lab space in sought-after East Cambridge. The complex scheduled for completion in early 2018 is anchored by Bristol Myers Squibb which leased 208,000 square feet in 2015, and Alexandria is in discussions with potential tenants for the remaining space, executives said in a recent conference call.

At the same time, Alexandria has begun site work at 399 Binney St., an approved development site for a 172,500-square-foot office and lab complex on the One Kendall Square campus.

Lab space availables in East Cambridge were 2.3 percent at the end of 2016, according to Transwestern’s bioSTATus report.

“Alexandria is going to be successful with whatever they can get approval from the city to do,” said Peter Bekarian, a managing director with JLL Boston. “It’s a great lab site, but it might also work really well as a residential or mixed-use site given the location.”

Metropolitan Pipe & Supply began exploring a sale four years ago, Prieto said. But the transaction was delayed as it searched the dwindling inventory of nearby industrial properties. Many of the company’s customers are life science lab operators, and Metropolitan Pipe wanted to stay close to Kendall Square, Prieto said.

“We could have sold the property many times before that. The hard part was finding a facility they were able to move into,” he said.

Preito approached Boston-based AEW Capital Management about an industrial building at 30 Innerbelt Road in Somerville, which had space available for lease, and convinced them to sell. The $35.75-million transaction closed March 31.

This story has been updated since it was originally published to include comments from the adviser to Metropolitan Pipe & Supply Co. on the transactions.