Image courtesy of SGA

Developers unveiled designs for a 242,000-square-foot life science tower rising among a stretch of strip malls and parking lots along Somerville’s McGrath Highway.

Leggat McCall Properties and DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners are seeking approval for the 9-story office-lab building near the Cambridge border.

Designed by architects SGA, the project will create a prominent new landmark on the Cambridge-Somerville border including an “iconic outdoor roof deck” and contrasting colored fins, according to application materials submitted to the Somerville Planning Board.

The project would include 13,100 square feet for arts and creative enterprises, part of a zoning requirement by Somerville officials to limit displacement of cultural spaces.

The two-story strip mall on the property previously was occupied by a mix of offices and retailers including Sav-Mor Liquors, which recently relocated to Assembly Row, and Mattress World.

The project includes 268 below-grade parking spaces on four levels and would create nearly 700 permanent jobs, developers stated.

Developers received Somerville zoning board of appeals approval of four variances required for the project last spring, and now are beginning their site plan review with the planning board. The property at 13-21 McGrath Highway sits on a narrow parcel next to the MBTA Green Line Extension right of way.

Developers hope to begin site work in spring 2022 and complete the project in 2024.

The project is a joint venture of Leggat McCall, DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners and Laben Realty of Somerville. Laben Realty, the owner of the property since 2008, sold it to the 15 McGrath Highway Owner LLC entity in 2020 for $6 million.

Leggat McCall and DLJ Real Estate also are seeking approval for a master-planned 1.1 million-square-foot life science campus next to their new 101 South St. lab tower in Boynton Yards.