Photo courtesy of the city of Cambridge

Major Boston developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes has bought a roughly 4-acre parcel in an industrial area near the Alewife MBTA station that’s being heralded as the city’s last great growth opportunity.

The firm paid just under $50 million for an industrial condominium at 67 Smith Place and a neighboring auto body shop at 67R Smith Place, public records show. California-based American Realty Advisors secured the $46.44 million mortgage for the transaction.

The site joins a neighboring property on which CC&F is proposing to build a 1 million-square-foot residential and life science project, along with a pedestrian bridge connecting it to the MBTA station. CC&F paid $80 million for the 12-acre site in 2018.

That project, along with a handful of others, are poised to transform the light industrial area known as the “Alewife Quad” into a new knowledge economy hot spot connected to Kendall Square and Cambridge Crossing via the MBTA’s Red Line.

The growth follows the successful build-out of the “Alewife Triangle” area surrounding the MBTA station, just north of the Quad.

The Boston Globe first reported the sale.