Image courtesy of Arrowstreet and Moody Nolan

Financial terms of a planned office-lab project in the Boston Seaport District were amended by Massport officials amid an increasingly difficult development landscape.

Andrew Hargens, Massport’s chief development officer, said Lincoln Property Co. continues to invest in design and permitting and pursue financing for the Seaport Circle project, originally estimated at $590 million.

“They are still fully committed,” Hargens told the Massport board of directors at today’s monthly meeting.

In 2020, Lincoln Property Co. originally offered a $25 million upfront payment to the port authority, which had been seeking a cash influx to cope with a budget shortfall as travel plummeted during COVID.

Under a change approved by Massport’s board of directors today, the $25 million upfront payment will be spread across the 99-year lease which totals $123 million.

Developers had originally been scheduled to close on the ground lease for the 701 Congress St. property next month, but Massport granted them a two-year extension in October.

Lincoln Property plans to develop a 650,000-square-foot project known as Seaport Circle, along with a new MBTA Silver Line Way station.

But the life science leasing picture has shifted dramatically since it was selected as developer of the 1.1-acre site known as parcel H in January 2021.

The 5.2 million-square-foot Seaport lab market currently has a 37 percent availability rate, according to CBRE, and a 12.6 percent vacancy rate.

The Greater Boston lab vacancy rate was 10.8 percent at the end of 2023, but projects totaling 12 million square feet are under construction. Only 1.5 million square feet of tenant lab requirements were active in the fourth quarter, according to a Newmark report.

“This parcel H discussion is just another example of how difficult the real estate market is not only in Boston, but across the country,” Massport board member Warren Fields said.