Greater Boston accounts for over half of all lab construction in the U.S. DivcoWest broke ground in June on a 375,000-square-foot office-lab building at Cambridge Crossing. Image courtesy of SteelBlue

DicvoWest is beginning construction of a speculative 375,000-square-foot lab building at Cambridge Crossing to meet potential life science tenants’ space needs in early 2023.

The 441 Morgan Ave. building will contain 10 floors of labs and two “penthouse” floors along with five outdoor terraces.

Designed by Ennead and architect of record Jacobs Consultants, the building will include minimal interior columns and ceiling heights that allow a range of uses by life science researchers, DivcoWest said.

Life science companies are in the market for approximately 9 million square feet of R&D and biomanufacturing space in eastern Massachusetts, according to a recent presentation at a NAIOP Massachusetts forum.

The 43-acre Cambridge Crossing project on the border of Boston, Cambridge and Somerville has 2.1 million square feet under construction to accommodate tenants including Phillips North America, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cerevel Therapeutics and Sanofi, which announced this week that it will locate one of two mRNA Centers of Excellence at Cambridge Crossing for vaccine research.

The development’s retail building, The Shed, opened last fall and developers recently announced that Cambridge-based Lamplighter Brewing Co. will open a 7,000-square-foot taproom and production facility this summer.