Image courtesy of IQHQ

A well-capitalized life science developer will add a Kendall Square flavor to the Fenway with a pair of office-lab towers accelerating the growth of the neighborhood’s life science cluster.

IQHQ Inc. and Meredith Management are beginning construction of the deck above the Massachusetts Turnpike for their $1 billion Fenway Center project after reaching an agreement with the state on a lease agreement. The development will be built on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s air rights parcel 7 located between the Beacon Street and Brookline Avenue overpasses.

MassDOT selected Meredith Management as developer in 2009, but progress was delayed during the past decade amid the aftereffects of the financial crisis and complexities of construction above active highway lanes and rail lines. Meredith Management switched from traditional office space and housing to lab space in 2019 and partnered with IQHQ Inc., a San Diego life science specialist that has emerged as a major player in Boston commercial real estate.

One lane in both directions of the Massachusetts Turnpike will be closed during the 24-month period needed to construct the 2-acre deck. Completion of the office-lab towers is scheduled for early 2025.

Approximately 1.6 acres of the site will be dedicated to a life science park with exhibits on industry history and a connection to the MBTA’s Lansdowne commuter rail station.

IQHQ, led by former BioMed and Alexandria Real Estate Equities founders, has raised $2.4 billion in two funding rounds since 2019. It quickly put the capital to work in acquisitions of the 26-acre GCP Applied Technologies campus in Cambridge, the 4 Corporate Drive campus in Andover and 109 Brookline Ave. in Boston where it’s proposing a 250,000-square-foot life science conversion.

The Fenway Center project represents the latest step in the growth of the life science industry in a neighborhood previously known for its music clubs, sports bars and game-day swarms of Red Sox fans.

Image courtesy of Gensler

Boston-based Samuels & Assoc. is developing a 500,000-square-foot lab tower at 201 Brookline Ave., on a corner of the former Landmark Center property now known as 401 Park.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities acquired the property this year for $1.5 billion and has announced plans to seek approvals for an additional 400,000-square-foot lab building.

Related Beal is in the process of building 127,700 square feet of lab space in its redevelopment of two former Boston University buildings in Kenmore Square.

And the Boston Red Sox owners and WS Development are planning a 2.1 million-square-foot development on a group of parcels surrounding Fenway Park, but have not announced details on the type of commercial space.