MIT's Newest Acquisitions

Days after news broke that MIT was spending $90.5 million to purchase four buildings in the Cambridgeport neighborhood, university officials downplayed the acquisition saying that the buildings were routine real estate investments.

“MIT invests in real estate all over the world, and we invest in Cambridge since we’ve had great success in investing in Cambridge over the years,” said John P. McQuaid, an official in the real estate division of the MIT Investment Management Company. “We invest in real estate that we think will make sense to MIT economically.”


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The four buildings contain a total of 148,000 square feet of laboratory space and are located along Albany and Sidney Streets, near Central Square and MIT’s University Park. The neighborhood has become a hub for life sciences and pharmaceutical companies in recent years, with some saying the area boasts the largest concentration of biotechnology companies in the world.

The occupancy of the buildings is not slated to change, as MIT will continue to rent out the laboratory space to biotech companies.

“Right now, [the buildings] are 100 percent occupied,” McQuaid said. “There’s various different tenants in there, and we don’t foresee any major changes in how they’re being used.”

MIT currently occupies 185 Albany St., while 195 Albany St. was leased to Shire Pharmaceuticals and subleased to Altus Pharmaceuticals. 148 Sidney St. was leased to Cubist Pharmaceuticals, while 149 Sidney St. was leased to Acceleron Pharmaceuticals.

Parking lots used by the Albany and Sidney Street buildings were also purchased.

McQuaid said he does not think the purchases will provoke any particular response from Cambridge residents.

“I think it’s just as if anyone else had purchased the property,” McQuaid said. “I can’t see why [local residents] would react negatively to it, we own a bunch of other properties in the area.”

McQuaid also said that the purchases were not a result of expansionary moves by either Harvard or Lesley University.

“I have no idea what their programs are,” McQuaid said. “This is just MIT investing in real estate in Cambridge. MIT will always look at real estate when it comes about in the community, and we’ll evaluate each and every one on its own merits.”

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu.