Image courtesy of SGA Architects

DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners and Leggat McCall Properties have teamed up again, this time to pitch a 9-story lab building along the McGrath Highway.

The two hope to build a 384,331-square-foot building at 15 McGrath Highway, adjacent to the Cambridge Crossing mega-development, which itself is rapidly filling with life science tenants taking advantage of its proximity to Kendall Square. The project architect is SGA.

Leggat McCall and DLJ are also partners on a large development nearby in Somerville’s Boynton Yards neighborhood.

The developers are asking Somerville officials for zoning relief for the 1-acre property, which is hemmed in by the future Green Line Extension tracks on one side and an access easement on the other, serving nearby properties that don’t have direct access to the street. DLJ and Leggat McCall say the situation impedes their ability to comply with the city’s 15-foot maximum setback requirement along McGrath Highway while ensuring the building will have marketable floorplates.

The development team is also asking for permission to extend its upper stories beyond the footprint of the ground floor to create 136,000 square feet of additional floor space – about half of what developers estimate will be 251,924 square feet of leasable space.

Once in possession of zoning relief, the project will commence with the city’s site plan approval process.