Tishman Speyer JV Marks Harvard Project Milestone

The buildings are part of the university's research campus in Boston.

The 440,000-square-foot lab component of Tishman Speyer’s Harvard Enterprise Research Campus in Allston, Mass., has topped out, with the final steel beams of the East and West lab buildings having been put into place. Turner Construction Co. is the project’s general contractor.

Tishman Speyer and Harvard University have broken ground on the first phase of Enterprise Research Campus, a mixed-use life science development in Boston
Rendering of the first phase of Enterprise Research Campus in Boston. Image courtesy of Tishman Speyer

The first phase of the mixed-use research campus broke ground just this past November, as a collaboration of Tishman Speyer, Harvard University and The Harvard Allston Land Co. Last June, the project received a $750 million construction loan from Otera Capital.

Breakthrough Properties, a joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, will develop, lease and operate the lab buildings.

The lab project reportedly is on track to be completed in Q1 2026.

The lab buildings’ construction team also includes Janey Construction Management and J&J Contractors, and the campus’s planning and architectural team includes Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, Utile and Marlon Blackwell Architects.


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The two lab/R&D buildings total 15 stories. Together, they form the centerpiece of the nearly 3-acre first phase, which will also encompass a 343-unit apartment building (with 86 affordable units), a hotel, and the Treehouse, a conference center operated by Harvard.

The second phase still has to undergo a separate permitting process and is planned to include additional office/lab space for research and development, more residential units, and additional green and open space.

Perennial powerhouse

Of the total lab/R&D space scheduled for delivery across the U.S. over the next two years, more than 40 percent (13.4 million square feet) is in metro Boston-Cambridge, still the nation’s leader, according to a report from CBRE. By comparison, the second-place San Francisco Bay Area totals barely half as much, 7 million square feet.

Only a couple of weeks ago, Eli Lilly and Co. opened its Lilly Seaport Innovation Center, a 12-story, 346,000-square-foot R&D facility in the Boston Seaport. The property, at 15 Necco St., was developed by Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., in partnership with National Development.