A letter of intent has been signed by MIT that is expected to lead to construction of the Broad Institute on vacant property at 7 Cambridge Center, currently owned by Boston Properties, Inc.
Once the build-to-suit plan is complete, employees will move from the current Broad Institute location at 320 Charles St. sometime in 2006. By then, the number of employees is expected to rise from today's 250-300 to approximately 600.
According to Steve Marsh, managing director of MIT's real estate division, the location was chosen because of its proximity to the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at 9 Cambridge Center, and to other major research facilities such as MIT's brain and cognitive sciences project now under construction at 43 Vassar St.
A broad range of research is underway at Broad, combining structural genomics, medical and population genetics and clinical medicine. It employs researchers from Whitehead, MIT and Harvard. Approximately 60 percent of the space at the new location will be dedicated to laboratory work.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on March 31, 2004.
