Favreau Design/Imai Keller Moore Architects

Seven developers are in competition to expand a South Boston ship repair facility with office and lab space for the waterfront’s growing life science and robotics cluster.

The Boston Planning and Development Agency picked the 24 Drydock Ave. property as a test of its proposed “flex industrial” strategy for the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park, encouraging developments in which office and lab space on the upper floors subsidizes lower-rent-paying industrial ground-floor uses.

The 32,324-square-foot property contains a 3-story, 30,000-square-foot building leased to Boston Ship Repair. Developers were required to include space for the company in their plans.

Boston Global Investors, master developer of the 23-acre Seaport Square project, is partnering with minority-owned businesses Eagle Development Partners and The Cogsville Group, a New York private equity firm. The group proposes an estimated $100 million, 110,000-square-foot development including 75,000 square feet of office and lab space, 4,080 square feet of makerspaces and a 4,770-square-foot restaurant.

“There is no real estate sector in the Greater Boston area with as high demand as laboratory/life science, and the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park offers the city of Boston with an opportunity to compete with the talent and resources that have recently aggregated in Cambridge,” contends the BGI team’s submission. “Moreover, the average credit-worthy tenant in this space tends to be well-funded and accustomed to rental rates beyond those of the typical commercial tenant, providing an opportunity to subsidize (Boston Ship Repair’s) rental rate to one that is well below the fair market value of a new building.”

Jamestown, owner of the nearby Innovation and Design Building, proposes a 105,100-square-foot building including labs, life science accelerators and makerspaces.

Cronin Group, the Boston-based developer of the St. Regis Residences condominium tower on Seaport Boulevard, said it’s looking to lure robotics companies such as ThayerMahan, which submitted a letter of interest in the project. The Mystic, Connecticut company makes autonomous underwater vehicles used in maritime security. Cronin Group’s plan calls for a 117,243-square-foot building with a roof deck for events, one floor of office space for its new headquarters and other tenants, three floors of flex industrial space and a 10,000-square-foot commissary on the ground floor and basement levels providing meals for cruise ships and other maritime uses.

Boston-based Favreau Design, in partnership with The Four Points and West Group Development, submitted plans to retain and expand the existing building for a 144,000-square-foot structure. Potential tenants include a Favreau Design showroom, Blue Fire Coffee Roasters, Edgar Sherman Design and a Fiorella’s Express Cafe.

Wakefield-based Aval Construction proposes renovating the existing building to provide a 10,000-square-foot ground floor for Boston Ship Repair, a second floor for marine researchers and incubators, and headquarters space for existing Seaport District businesses on the third floor.

Boston-based Core Investments, led by David Pogorelc, submitted plans for a 6-story, 162,000-square-foot building with 141,000 square feet of lab space on the second through sixth floors.

And 24 Drydock Avenue LLC, a partnership of Kim Vaughan’s Summit Seaport LLC and Tracy Goodman’s GFI 24 Drydock Avenue LLC, proposes a 5-story, 125,000-square-foot building. The first floor would have 17-foot heights for the ship repair facility and the upper floors would have 15-foot heights for office and lab space.

The property is owned by the BPDA’s sibling agency, the Economic Development & Industrial Corp. of Boston. According to the request for proposals issued in November, the recommended terms call for a 70-year ground lease with minimum annual rent of $3.50 per square foot on a gross basis.

The BPDA has proposed rezoning the 191-acre Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park, citing growing demand for office and lab space and waning use by the seafood industry. The new master plan is under review by the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. The BPDA estimates that more flexible zoning could generate more than 4 million square feet of development in the marine park.

New developments such as iSQ Seaport on Tide Street have demonstrated demand for lab space in the neighborhood, with Mass Innovation Labs and PureTech Health leasing space in the initial 125,000-square-foot phase of the project.

And Pappas Commerce Center at 645 Summer St. is 50 percent leased to two life science tenants, Akouos and 908 Devices, following a 150,000-square-foot office, lab and flex redevelopment.