Tishman Speyer, Harvard Break Ground on Boston Project

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

Tishman Speyer and Harvard University celebrated the groundbreaking of Enterprise Research Campus, a mixed-use life science project in Boston. In collaboration with The Harvard Allston Land Co., the developer is building the first phase of Enterprise Research Campus, which is scheduled for delivery in 2026.

The project won the approval of the Boston Planning and Development Agency in 2022, after a long process seeking community input. In June, the development also landed a $750 million construction loan from Otera Capital.

Now, Tishman Speyer has started construction on Enterprise Research Campus, tasking Breakthrough Properties to develop, lease and operate the lab buildings. The developer also tapped a number of planning and architectural firms to help design the project, including Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, Utile, Marlon Blackwell Architects and others.

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The first phase of Enterprise Research Campus will include two laboratory buildings designed for scientific research and development, catering to biotech and pharmaceutical companies. As part of this project component, Tishman Speyer will also develop the David Rubenstein Treehouse to serve as a campus-wide conference facility for Harvard University. Overall, the initial phase will total 900,000 square feet, since the campus will also include a 343-unit rental community, a hotel and more than 2 acres of public outdoor space.

According to Tishman Speyer, Enterprise Research Campus will have a second phase to complete the 9-acre development. The details for the second phase have not been announced, but the overall development is expected to allocate space for local retail and restaurants, while also offering open areas for public events like farmers’ markets, concerts and outdoor fitness classes.

Boston’s booming life science market

To better capture the growing life science market, Tishman Speyer formed the Breakthrough Properties joint venture with Bellco Capital in 2019. The joint venture focuses on developing state-of-the-art life science centers and broke ground on its first ground-up development, The 105, in March 2020. In July 2020, the Boston project landed a full-building tenant while it was still under construction.

More recently, Breakthrough Properties obtained $130 million in construction financing for a 223,000-square-foot life science building in Philadelphia. In October, Tishman Speyer opened The Spiral, a 2.8 million-square-foot office tower in Manhattan, which had been under construction since 2018.