25 Broadway. Image courtesy of NBBJ and Dream Collaborative

Biogen is reportedly in negotiations to lease up to 500,000 square feet as the first tenant at MIT’s redevelopment of the Volpe Center property in Cambridge.

The $9.8 billion-a-year drugmaker is in “advanced discussions” on approximately 500,000 square feet of space at the Kendall Square development, the Boston Business Journal reported.

Biogen leases nearly 1.2 million square feet of office and lab space in Massachusetts, with various leases expiring through 2028, according to the company’s 2023 annual report. Its Cambridge footprint totals 808,000 square feet, including the corporate headquarters at 225 Binney St. The total includes 209,000 square feet currently subleased by other companies.

The company also has an expiring lease for 357,000 square feet of office space in Weston, which will not be renewed, and 174,000 of which is already subleased.

MIT acquired the sought after former federally-owned Volpe Transportation Center site for $750 million in February and has approval for 1.7 million square feet of commercial development and 1,400 housing units.

The institute is in permitting for individual buildings within the 14-acre site, including a 16-story, 407,893-square-foot office-lab building at 25 Broadway.

A move to the Volpe site would follow the move of drugmaker Sanofi to a another new master-planned campus in East Cambridge. In 2018, Sanofi opted to consolidate its Cambridge-based operations to 900,000 square feet at the new Cambridge Crossing campus, leaving behind its 50 Binney St. headquarters.

After nearly a decade with vacancies in the low single digits, East Cambridge’s 16.8 million-square-foot lab market has softened amid the decline in biotech leasing since 2021.

At the end of the third quarter, the submarket including Kendall Square had a 16.2 percent availability rate, including an 8.6- percent direct vacancy rate, according to CBRE.