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Image courtesy of SGA
Boston developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes has filed plans with Cambridge officials for a 58,000-square-foot research and development building near the site of a major planned biotech development in the city’s west.
CC&F sold most of its holdings in Cambridge’s Alewife Quad neighborhood to national life sciences REIT Healthpeak Realty after failing to gain city approval for a 1 million-square-foot life sciences and residential development in the area. Healthpeak hopes to turn the three dozen acres it now owns in the neighborhood into a life sciences “campus” over the next decade.
The CC&F proposal, designed by local architecture firm SGA, would rise 4 stories on a three-quarter-acre lot at 180 Fawcett St. A 53-space garage will be built underneath the building – slightly less than the city-mandated 56 spots – and 14 bicycle parking spaces will be provided. A grade-separated cycle track will also be built along the property’s street-facing edge.
The property is currently occupied by a 22,800-square-foot, 2-story gymnasium and office building built in 1965, according to city property records. A primary tenant, according to local media reports, is a martial-arts center.
To comply with flood protection requirements – the Quad is projected to be extremely vulnerable to future storms made stronger by global warming – the building’s first floor is raised on a two-foot terrace edged with planting beds, according to plans filed with city officials.
CC&F’s application also states that the proposed building is being designed consistent with city planners’ recommendations for the Alewife Quad. Some city councilors and residents are seeking a moratorium on new lab development in the neighborhood because those recommendations have not yet been incorporated into Cambridge’s official zoning laws.
The project goes before the Cambridge Planning Board Dec. 7 for a special permit hearing, plus various other approvals.
