MGH to Expand Reseach Labs

A Harvard-affiliated hospital has announced plans to expand into the new real estate development at the Charlestown Naval Yard, a move which will increase its research facilities by 40 percent, officials said today.

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has worked out a tentative agreement with a major Navy Yard developer to rent two floors of a newly renovated building, hospital spokesman Martin S. Bander said today.

This new facility--in Navy Yard building No. 149--will represent the first major MGH expansion off its 13.4 acre Fruit Street site in Boston, Bander said. "We have had an overwhelming increase in research funding, and there's just no room for them. To have suitable facilities, we have to go off campus," he said.

Research grants from outside sources have increased 78 percent over the past five years to $71.5 million in fiscal year 1986, Bander said. MGH has a total budget of about $350 million, he added.

MGH opened its first building on Fruit St. in 1821. It has since expanded that campus to 16 buildings.

Although hospital officials have not yet determined which research departments will move into the new facility, Bander said that it might be especially appropriate for doctors who specialize in basic research because many of them don't work directly with patients.

The new building is only a seven-minute drive from the main MGH campus and the two areas will be connected by a shuttle bus, Bander said.

MGH and the site's developers, Raymond Cattle Company, are still negotiating the terms of the lease, and Bander said that facility would be funded entirely by outside research grants.

MGH doctors will probably begin moving in within the next 12 months, said Richard Bland, Raymond's director of marketing for the Navy Yard project.

Building 149 is actually owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), which Tuesday approved Raymond's purchase of an 80-year lease from another development company. Raymond paid $83 million for the lease on building 149 and a nearby1300-car garage.

According to a BRA spokesman, Raymond isexpected to spend an additional $45 million onadditional renovations to accomodate the MGHdoctors. The other six floors of building 149 havenot been rented out yet, Bland said, but he addedthat the developers expect that the other tenantswill also be medical researchers.

Raymond also owns the development area alongthe water-front outright, and they plan to buildseveral thousand condominiums, retail space, and amarina, Bland said.

The developers said they hope to attract moretenants from universities seeking research space."We expect more Harvard affiliates. The Navy Yardis particularly good for campus tenants. It's verypark-like," Bland said. "Mass. General will be ananchor tenant.