Skanska USA breaks ground on $70 million life science development in Kendall Square

Skanska USA's commercial development business unit broke ground on its newest development site, a $70 million lab and office building located at 150 Second St. The entire project development team, along with the mayor of Cambridge David Maher and state representative Alice Wolf, participated in the groundbreaking. Skanska USA acquired the property in November 2010 and will self-finance 100% of the development costs for the three-story Class A project. The fully-designed building, located in Kendall Sq., is situated on a 60,000 s/f parcel. 150 Second St. will include 120,000 s/f of sustainable lab space and has obtained LEED Gold Precertification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The building will contain large windows designed to wash natural daylight throughout an open floor plan design, which reduces the need for artificial lighting systems. The open floor plan also minimizes the cooling load of the building's mechanical systems. To reduce water waste, the site will include underground storm water storage and a filtration system as well as a landscaped courtyard with natural vegetation that will not require irrigation. "150 Second St. represents our objective to deliver a first class highly sustainable lab building that provides the necessary flexibility, infrastructure and the optimum energy performance for tenants in the Cambridge market," said Shawn Hurley, executive vice president and regional manager of Skanska USA's Boston commercial development unit. Skanska USA Building will be responsible for constructing the project. Elkus Manfredi is the architect and Jones Lang LaSalle will be the leasing agent. "The construction of 150 Second St. continues to reinforce the fact that Kendall Sq. and Cambridge is the region's hub for life sciences and information technology," said mayor Maher.