Image courtesy of SGA/DREAM Collaborative

Life science labs and the traditional marine industrial economy have increasingly operated side-by-side in Boston’s Seaport District in recent years.

The next major development project would combine them under one roof.

Developers of a 320,000-square-foot lab development at 22 Drydock Ave. are offering public benefits for the neighborhood’s marine economy including a research and training center and funding for a new fisheries museum.

The rent-free space for Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute on the ground floor of the proposed 22 Drydock Ave. project is accompanied by a public benefits package that includes an assortment of programs connected to the marine and life science industries. The 7-story project at 22 Drydock Ave. is anchored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ latest expansion within the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park.

Developers Related Beal, Kavanagh Advisory Group and the Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund (BREIF) are partnering on the project, which includes a 60-percent component of minority- and women-owned businesses in its project team, according to a project notification form submitted to the Boston Planning & Development Agency.

Developers will build out and rent a portion of the ground floor to Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute for a new satellite location and pay $200,000 to establish an endowment for job training programs for veterans and $200,000 for a marine biotech program for Boston high school students.

Other public benefits offered by the project include:

• $2.1 million to be allocated as part of the BPDA impact advisory group’s review;
• $500,000 to endow a STEM program chair at Boston Collegiate Charter School;
• $250,000 for a location study of an emergency services station in the marine park;
• $200,000 to establish a fisherman’s relief fund for the Boston Fisheries Foundation;
• $200,000 for initial funding of a Boston FIsheries foundation museum;
• $200,000 to the No Books No Ball Basketball Program for a scholarship program;
• $100,000 to math tutoring program PieRSquared;
• $50,000 for the Boston Seafood Festival.

The development already has landed a major Seaport District tenant in Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which will grow its footprint in the neighborhood to 1.9 million square feet and an additional 500 employees with its new Jeffrey Leiden Center II at 22 Drydock Ave.

Vertex announced the expansion in May, as it opened its Leiden Center for Cell and Genetic Therapies I at 316-318 Northern Ave., which was developed by Related Beal.

The Economic Development and Industrial Corp. of Boston offered the 2-acre parcel  at 22 Drydock Ave. as a redevelopment site in February 2021, stating its goal of positioning the marine park as a life industry rival to Cambridge’s Kendall Square.

In April 2022, the BPDA selected a team of Related Beal, Kavanagh Advisory Group and Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund, led by developer Richard Taylor. Three development teams had sought the designation.

The BPDA has responded to the decline of the marine industrial economy and growing demand for life science facilities with new zoning that allows a combination of industrial and lab space in new projects.