A 2023 Healthpeak Properties investor presentation shows parcels controlled by the Denver life science developer in West Cambridge (highlighted in orange)
Houston-based Hines is joining the development team for a 5 million-square-foot master-planned project in Cambridge’s Alewife neighborhood.
Healthpeak Properties, a Denver, Colorado-based life science developer, owns approximately 40 acres in the neighborhood following a $2 billion buying spree in 2021 and 2022.
Hines will lead the residential component of the project and plans to break ground on the first building in 2027, the companies announced. The developers are seeking to land approval for the first building in 2026.
Branded as “Cambridge Point,” the project is subject to a zoning plan approved by Cambridge officials designed to include mixed-income housing and commercial space. Total buildout capacity is 5 million square feet, according to a joint announcement from Healthpeak and Hines.
The project also will include connections to local parks and construction of a pedestrian bridge connecting the Quadrangle neighborhood with the MBTA’s Alewife station. The transit station is being offered for redevelopment by the MBTA in a separate project.
“Our goal is to deliver housing that will integrate innovation, intentional design, and a robust sense of place, reflecting the values of Cambridge for generations,” Senior Managing Director and head of Hines’ U.S. East Market Sarah Hawkins said in a statement.
Hines has 60 million square feet of real estate under management nationwide, and is developing the South Station Tower including office space and St. Regis luxury condominiums in Boston.
Developers said the West Cambridge district is well-positioned to capture growth of the life science industry, which grew rapidly along Cambridgepark Drive in the previous decade, but has stalled in recent years. West Cambridge’s lab market totals 2.6 million square feet and has a 50.8 percent availability rate, according to brokerage CBRE.
With the Greater Boston lab market saturated with empty, spec-built life science space and the region’s housing affordability problems showing no signs of abating amid the slowest pace of construction in a decade, the economic advantage has swung firmly back in the direction of housing projects at sites near transit or retail hubs.
In the last six months, developers with lab or mixed housing-lab projects have begun pivoting to multifamily uses. HRP is seeking Boston officials’ permission to build 636 units of housing first at its 1.7 million-square-foot redevelopment of a former South Boston power plant. Copper Mill and Asana Partners are preparing plans for housing projects – in the form of a 500-unit tower in one case – on the site of approved or proposed lab projects in Somerville’s Davis Square.
And close to the Hines-Healthpeak site, local firm Boylston Properties filed plans last month for a 12-story apartment tower at 745 Concord Ave. that it had previously mooted for a life science development.
