Kendall Square corner on sale for $4.5 million

Two nondescript parcels at the corner of Bent and Third streets in Kendall Square totaling no more than 5,600 square feet are on sale together for $4.5 million.

The asking price for 231 and 235 Third highlights just how expensive land has become in that area of East Cambridge that hosts not only M.I.T. but outposts of so many technology and biotechnology companies, including Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Biogen, Genzyme, Amazon, and Pfizer.

In fact, the Compass listing for the corner parcels touts both their development potential and their proximity to those very companies. Potential buyers are to do their own due diligence regarding the possibilities, but the area is zoned for industrial, commercial, and residential use.

The Compass listing for No. 231, in fact, says the combined parcels could support a residential project of up to about 13,750 square feet. Cambridge and the Boston region in general certainly need the new housing, ensuring that any units built there would likely be snapped up at a premium.

Compass

There is a 996-square-foot single-family plus garage on No. 235’s lot, though the properties would likely need to come down as they’re in disrepair—the Compass listing for that lot warns about even entering the property. The adjoining No. 231 has a wood-framed building zoned for commercial use. (Compass listed the lots as the calendar clicked over to November.)

The Third Street listing is but the latest evidence of how valuable land has become in Kendall, which boasts some of the Boston region’s highest office rents and reigns as its tech/biotech hub, the one it seems every developer and public official wants to mimic.

Perhaps the most striking example of the neighborhood’s desirability for development came in early 2017, when M.I.T. paid the federal government $750 million for the 14-acre Volpe transportation center site. The university plans to build big there. Who wouldn’t?

Meanwhile, though, Kendall’s very popularity is straining the neighborhood’s infrastructure, particularly its Red Line stop. The strain has spurred private industry leaders with offices in the area to band together with elected officials to force some kind of alleviation. Stay tuned.