Departments
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Week of 17 April 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 28 |
Feature Article
BioSquare's new building will give economic boost to South End
Construction will begin this month on the second building of BioSquare, the 16-acre research and business park in Boston's South End being developed as a joint venture by Boston Medical Center and Boston University. The new 160,000-square-foot building, across Albany Street from BMC, will house a biomedical research facility that is expected to be fully leased when completed in October 1999.
"The BioSquare project provides a fertile environment for developing new technologies that ultimately will benefit our patients," says Elaine Ullian, BMC president and chief executive.
President Jon Westling describes BioSquare as a tangible example of the University's commitment to the growth and development of Boston. "The project will greatly increase the economic vitality of the South End by adding an estimated 200 jobs and approximately 300 temporary construction jobs," he points out.
A major occupant in the new facility, occupying 90,000 square feet gross, will be the Evans Medical Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that supports medical research and education. The Foundation is a major research arm of BMC's department of medicine and funds studies of mechanisms of human disease in areas including molecular genetics and translational medicine. A further 70,000 square feet will be available for commercial tenancy.
On completion, BioSquare will include 2.5 million square feet of research and office space in three buildings as well as a hotel/ conference center and parking. Tenants will have access to a range of biomedical research equipment and services, including a cardiovascular imaging suite, a transgenic facility, and a mass spectrometry unit. The first phase of BioSquare was completed in 1993 with the opening of the 200,000-square-foot Center for Advanced Biomedical Research.
Other revitalization efforts by the University and BMC in the South End include the renovation of the historic Talbot Building on Albany Street, now the home of the School of Public Health. BMC also donated the Old Aerated Bread Factory building at the corner of Washington and East Concord Streets to the Committee to End Elder Homelessness, enabling them to develop 40 units of housing for formerly homeless seniors.