Alexandria Real Estate Equities has completed financing for a 414,000-square-foot life science center in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area, and has a signed a long-term lease with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute for a portion of the space.

"The new center represents a significant opportunity to expand our dominant Greater Boston operating life science platform of over 3.5 million square feet into Boston’s internationally acclaimed Longwood Medical Area innovation cluster," said Tom Andrews, executive vice president and regional market director of Alexandria’s Greater Boston cluster, in a statement.  

The 414,000-square-feet, 11-story center will be built on a 1.02-acre site at the intersection of Longwood and Brookline avenues, and will include office and lab space as well as an onsite parking garage. Alexeandia has partnered with National Development, Charles River Realty Investors, and Clarion Partners, LLC to finance the project. Non-recourse construction financing for approximately 60 percent of total project costs has closed.

Construction will begin early in the second quarter of 2012.

Dana-Farber has leased 154,000-square-feet of Longwood Center to expand its research operations. Dana-Farber expects to occupy its space by the end of 2014. 

"We are tremendously excited to be part of this project," said Barrett Rollins, MD, PhD, chief scientific officer at Dana-Farber. "Its scope and ideal location provide an extraordinary opportunity for Dana-Farber to accommodate its research needs in a way that will take advantage of cutting-edge concepts in interactive laboratory design."

"This project truly represents the next chapter in leading edge global research and development," said Mark Weld, managing director and portfolio manager in Clarion’s Boston office. "We are pleased to join with our development partners and Dana-Farber in being an integral part of making this vision a reality."