Image courtesy of Studio Gang

Construction of the initial 900,000-square-foot phase of Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus in Allston is beginning this week after developers received a $750 million construction loan led by Otera Capital.

Harvard and New York developer Tishman Speyer are partnering on the project, including an office-lab building, a hotel and conference center, and a 345-unit apartment building, on a 9-acre Western Avenue site.

Harvard and Tishman Speyer agreed last summer to include 25 percent income-restricted units – the highest by a private development to date in Boston – and establish a $25 million affordable housing fund for Allston-Brighton.

The agreement broke a stalemate and lengthy permitting process, after elected officials and the Coalition for a Just Allston + Brighton demanded that developers do more to stem displacement in the neighborhood.

“We were pretty happy with that result in terms of the percentage of affordability,” Jo-Ann Barbour, a member of the coalition’s steering committee, said this week. “It’s a small amount of housing units, but a good range of affordability.”

Units will be reserved for households ranging from 30 to 100 percent of area median income.

Developers also contributed $1 million toward a community needs assessment study being coordinated by the Boston Planning and Development Agency, which will study changes to future developments’ community benefits. 

The initial phase will be built on a 9-acre section of the Enterprise Research Campus on Western Avenue. Construction is scheduled for completion in late 2025 and early 2026.

Included in the first phase are a 263,500-square-foot residential building, 440,000-square-foot office-lab building, 250-room hotel and 61,500-square-foot conference center.