Cambridge’s Foundry building redevelopment plans coming together

Cambridge officials are inching toward a redevelopment plan for the 76,000-square-foot Foundry Works building at 101 Rogers Street in East Cambridge.

The city acquired the building in January 2012 as part of a rezoning in nearby Kendall Square; and, in May 2015, the City Council set aside $6 million for redevelopment (though the final tag will be much more than that). Things have foundered for the Foundry building since, with a previous redevelopment plan petering out.

Now, the city has brought in the Lemelson-M.I.T. program to help create a plan and hire a developer for the property, per Cambridge Day’s Marc Levy. A request for proposals from would-be developers could come in early 2019.

From there it would be on to realizing the city’s vision for the building, which imagines it as becoming a kind of cultural-manufacturing-office hybrid that would be both easily accessible and flexible in terms of layout.

Construction could start in June 2019, and the reworked Foundry could open as soon as February 2021. Stay tuned.

• Details of Foundry building start to coalesce; Lemelson-M.I.T. hired to realize 2021 opening [Day]