A select group of developers have 90 days to submit proposals to redevelop some of the most sought-after real estate on the East Coast, the Volpe Center in Cambridge’s Kendall Square.

The federal government kicked off the latest step in the long-awaited disposal of the 14-acre parcel at 55 Broadway, after receiving interest from eight well-known developers active in the Boston area last year. The General Services Administration is seeking private developers to build a large-scale mixed-use development in the heart of the nation’s largest biotech cluster.

The site contains six buildings totaling 375,000 square feet occupied by U.S. Department of Transportation research offices. Developers will be required to set aside a portion of the property and build a “state-of-the-art” facility for the transportation department that would remain under federal ownership. The rest would be available for disposal as a mixed-use development.

Only the developers who were determined qualified based upon last year’s requests for qualifications are eligible to move forward with the next step. A GSA spokesman said the names of those developers are confidential.

The site is considered among the most attractive in the U.S. given the heavy concentration of tech and life science companies located in Kendall Square or seeking to expand there. Vacancies for office and lab space are in the low single digits and most of the 1.5 million square feet currently under construction in the neighborhood already is leased.

Rents for Kendall Square office and lab space are ranging between $70 and $80 per foot with demand exceeding supply six-fold, according to David Townsend, an executive managing director for Newmark Grubb Knight Frank in Boston.