The Davis Cos. of Boston has begun construction of Alewife Research Center, a 223,000-square-foot lab building at 35 Cambridgepark Drive that’s positioned to attract spillover demand from life science companies unable to find space in Kendall Square.

The spec project could become a corporate headquarters or multitenant building, said Brian Fallon, president of TDC Development Group. Completion of the shell is estimated in summer 2018.

“Speed to market is critical to us,” Fallon said. “We will be one of the only lab buildings capable of delivering in mid-2018 in the Cambridge market.”

Davis Cos. received final approval from Cambridge officials for the project to the rear of the MBTA Red Line station on Dec. 12. It had begun final design and contract documents last fall, enabling the quick groundbreaking, Fallon said.

Located on a 2.5-acre site, the existing building was completed in the 1950s for a steel fabrication company. It was converted into a 3-story office building in 1983 by The Schochet Cos. of Braintree.

TDC Development has begun interior demolition and expects to turn the building over to general contractor John Moriarty & Assoc. by early April, Fallon said.

The project will demolish the two top floors down to the second-floor deck and build out 40,000-square-foot column-free floor plates with class A lab infrastructure and 14.5 feet between floors. Loading docks and lab support space will be built on the existing ground floor, along with a convenience retail space designed to capture foot traffic from the MBTA station.

Building features will include a two-story lobby, employee lounge, meeting space, fitness studio with showers and bike storage.

“We’re going to let the market come to us. It sets up nicely for a single headquarters or full floor users, and the 40,000-square-foot floor plates are divisible for two tenants per floor,” Fallon said.

The development team includes architects Spagnolo Gisness & Assoc. and AHA Consulting Engineers.

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Mark Winters is representing ownership in leasing. More than 2.1 million square feet of lab space is being sought by 55 companies in the Cambridge market, according to Newmark data.

The only significant-sized imminent lab availability in Kendall Square is at 100 Binney St., a 400,000-square-foot building scheduled for completion in 2017. Bristol Myers Squibb leased 208,000 square feet in 2015, and owner-developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities is leasing the remaining space on a floor-by-floor basis, Alexandria CEO Joel Marcus said in a recent earnings call.

Alexandria also has indicated it plans to break ground soon on a 172,500-square-foot office and lab building at 399 Binney St.  in the One Kendall Square complex that it acquired last year for $725 million.

This story was updated with additional information since it was originally posted.