Developer to file plans for a 14-acre R&D complex with a hotel, apartments and a conference center on Harvard land off Western Avenue

A New York real-estate firm says it will soon file detailed plans with the BPDA for a mixed-use development at 100 Western Ave., behind the Sanofi Genzyme plant, on land that Harvard had been using as a staging area for its other Allston construction projects, but which the school had always meant to become the core of an "enterprise research campus."

In 2018, the BPDA approved the basic outline of Harvard's plans for the 14-acre site, part of an even larger piece of land Harvard owns between Western Avenue and Cambridge Street.

In a letter of intent submitted last week, Tishman Speyer says it will shortly file specifications for 440,000 square feet of office and research and development space, roughly 330 residential units in two buildings, a 250-room hotel and a 75,000-square foot conference center, along with "activated ground-floor uses," which might mean stores and restaurants in the various buildings.

Most of the parking on the site will be in underground garages; the company did not specify the number of spots, but in past filings, Harvard estimated it would propose 800 to 900 spaces.

The company says it will set aside two acres for "welcoming public open space," that will create "an intimate, porous urban environment that places a focus on the pedestrian experience," with much of that set aside for a greenway that could eventually extend from the Honan-Allston BPL branch on North Harvard Street to the Charles River, as well as "active programming" that will include concerts, festivals and health and wellness classes, at least once we're all cleared for such packed public gatherings again.

The plan also calls for construction of two new roads - one named Cattle Drive in homage to the area's history as a home of slaughterhouses.

Tishman Speyer letter of intent (48k PDF).