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A North Reading developer is proposing an 18-story office-lab tower in Somerville’s Assembly Square as the neighborhood gains momentum as a life science destination.

Brickyard at Assembly LLC seeks to redevelop a 1-acre site occupied by a 2-story office building, church and surface parking at 120-132 Middlesex Ave. as a 644,000-square-foot office-lab building.

“The proposed building will be designed to accommodate cutting-edge labs, modern offices, innovative startups and creative enterprise uses that address current investor and market demand in proximity to emerging and existing life science clusters in Somerville and Cambridge,” attorney Joseph Hanley of McDermott Quilty & Miller LLP wrote in an application letter to the Somerville zoning board of appeals.

Developers are seeking a variance from the requirement that a minimum of 25 percent of the site to be set aside for civic spaces, seeking to make a payment to the city as a substitute.

The proposal is the latest in a series of office-lab projects proposed next to Federal Realty’s Assembly Row development, which established the neighborhood’s large-scale corporate presence with development of the Mass General Brigham offices and future home of Puma North America.

BioMed Realty is seeking final state approval for 1.6 million square of office-lab development at the Xmbly property at 5 Middlesex Ave., while Boston Global Investors and Edge Technologies received master plan approval in June for a 498,000-square-foot office-lab building at 74 Middlesex Ave. and 84 McGrath Highway.