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‘The next Kendall Squares,’ mapped

Everybody wants to mimic the super successful Cambridge technology hub—or so it seems

By Tom Acitelli@tomacitelli Feb 14, 2019, 11:06am EST

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By Tom Acitelli@tomacitelli Feb 14, 2019, 11:06am EST

1 comment / new

Boston Globe via Getty Images

It is a testament to the Cambridge hub’s success that just about every third major mixed-use development in the Boston area says it wants to be some variant of “the next Kendall Square.”

What’s that mean? Usually it has something to do with hosting myriad major technology companies. Kendall has those in spades—Google announced a major expansion there as recently as mid-February. It also usually has to do with proximity to mass transit—there’s a Red Line stop at Kendall and several buses book through regularly.

Here are the pretenders to that sort of throne, based on media reports and public filings. And stay tuned: This map will surely have to be updated.

The Hartwell Innovation Campus

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This cluster of life science buildings in Lexington dates from mid-decade.

Its developer moved forward with the project under the assumption that companies priced out of Kendall would move here.

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115 Hartwell Ave, Lexington, MA 02421

NEXUS at the Allston Innovation Corridor

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A group of developers has proposed constructing a three-building, 607,900-square-foot biotechnology and life sciences hub on more than 4 acres along Western Avenue. It’s supposed to have housing, too.

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280 Western Ave, Allston, MA 02134

Union Square

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This Somerville neighborhood is due for a Green Line stop early next decade. Partly because of that, it’s already being talked of as a tech hub of national import.

Union Square, Somerville, MA 02143

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18 Boston-area developments to watch in 2018, mapped

Exchange South End

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The Globe in August 2018 called this replacement for the Boston Flower Exchange a “massive Kendall Square-like development.”

It’s hard to argue: The 5.6-acre parcel is due to have hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial, technology, and life science research space as well as business-incubator space.

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591 Albany St, Boston, MA 02118

An aerial view of Exchange South End in Boston. There is a wide street flanked by various buildings.

UMass Boston Bayside

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University of Massachusetts officials are on the record saying they want a developer to create a kind of Kendall-like corporate campus on this 20-acre site near the JFK/UMass Red Line stop.

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UMass Boston Bayside, 180 Mt Vernon St, Boston, MA 02125

Construction equipment demolishing an old mall site.

Suffolk Downs

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The 161-acre former racetrack site near two Blue Line stops was very, very likely going to host an Amazon campus had the e-commerce behemoth picked the Boston area for its second HQ.

That didn’t happen. But the track’s owner is still planning a mammoth mixed-use development there—possibly with lab space.