MIT welcomes Pfizer to the neighborhood
Pharma giant signs 10-year lease on future 610 Main St. complex
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced yesterday that it signed a 10-year lease with MIT for 180,000 square feet of space in a building to be constructed at 610 Main St. The site is just north of MIT’s main campus in the Technology Square area, several blocks up Main St. from the Kendall Square T-stop. Pfizer predicts they will move into the new building when it is completed by the end of 2013.
According to a Pfizer press release, the space will house the company’s Cardiovascular, Metabolic, and Endocrine Disease (CVMED) and Neuroscience Research Units. The move will bring about 400 new jobs to Cambridge, said the release.
Pfizer’s expansion comes amidst a continuing push by MIT to bring high-tech companies to the Kendall Square area. MIT announced the development of the space at 610 Main — currently a parking lot — earlier this year, in addition to a substantial overhaul of the area surrounding the Kendall T-stop.
“The agreement is good for the growing innovation hub in Kendall Square, good for Cambridge, and good for MIT,” said President Susan J. Hockfield in a statement on the MIT News Office website.
In the time before the construction is complete, the CVMED and neuroscience research groups will occupy Pfizer’s building at 620 Memorial Dr. According to the press release, CVMED will move to the Memorial Dr. location at the “end of this summer,” and the neuroscience group will follow in 2012.
MIT has also launched a website to market the 610 Main property — http://sixtenmit.com/. A map on the site suggests that the new complex at 610 Main will consist of two buildings — “South” and “North,” with a courtyard between them.