PHOTOS: Harvard, Tishman Speyer Open Enterprise Research Campus

What was once hundreds of acres of rail yards and underutilized industrial sites is now the beginning of what could be a blossoming mixed-use community — it just took more than a decade to come together.

Tishman Speyer, Harvard University, and state and local officials celebrated the opening of the university's Enterprise Research Campus in Allston on Tuesday, marking the completion of the first phase of a 36-acre transformation of one of the largest developable sites in Boston.

“We set out to deliver the best real estate for the best scientists of our generation,” Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer said. “Spaces for people whose work will literally change our worlds. This is it, and I hope you feel as proud as I do today.”

Speyer leads one of the world's biggest developers, with a $70B portfolio.

The first phase of the ERC spans 14 acres in the heart of Allston and includes 3 acres of open space, two lab buildings, 343 units of housing, a 246-room hotel and the David Rubenstein Treehouse conference center.

The next phase of the project, known as Phase B, still needs to undergo permitting and would include 720K SF of life sciences and office space, plus more multifamily and green space. 

In total, the campus would encompass 36 acres and more than 1.9M SF of development.

The entire campus sits next to Harvard Business School and the university's Science and Engineering Complex.

The university is the dominant real estate owner in Allston. It owns roughly 358 acres in Boston, compared to the 215 acres across the Charles River at its main campus in Cambridge.

Harvard proposed its Enterprise Research Campus in 2011, selecting Tishman to lead development in 2019. In 2023, the group landed a $750M construction loan from Montreal-based Otera Capital for the project.

When it was being conceived, the property was envisioned as Kendall Square 2.0, a competitor to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-anchored life sciences hub where rents were skyrocketing and there was virtually no lab vacancy.

The project's centerpiece is an interconnected, two-building life sciences complex at One Milestone St., which includes a 265K SF east wing and a 245K SF west wing. That project was developed by Breakthrough Properties, a Tishman-backed lab developer.

The property's anchor tenant is Roche Genentech, which expanded its lease to 100K SF in January. The company is planning a phased move-in this year. It is the only company to sign a lab deal at the property so far, a sign of how the life sciences market has soured since construction began.

Some joked about how long the development took, with Rep. Mike Moran even saying the initial talks happened while Wu was still a senior at the university in 2007.

“Today we get to experience the exquisite joy of finishing a three-year journey, of looking back and seeing how far we've come from a vacant expanse to a promising vision of the future,” Harvard University President Alan Garber said. “None of this would have been possible without partnership.”

Most of the first phase had opened well before Tuesday's celebration.

The first piece of the project that opened was Verra, a two-building apartment complex with 343 units that welcomed its first residents last summer. The complex is 25% affordable, with 86 income-restricted apartments.

More than 60% of the apartment complex was leased up as of January, Bisnow confirmed with a member of the complex's leasing team.

The city has already hosted several events at the David Rubenstein Treehouse conference center, Wu pointed out.

The center, along with The Atlas, a 246-room hotel managed by hospitality company Highgate, and restaurant Ama, opened at the beginning of the year. Retailers that have opened include Phin Coffee House and an outpost for The Coop, a Harvard Square bookstore.

Roughly a quarter of the businesses that have rented space on the campus are local, small businesses or businesses owned by people of color and women, Wu said.

The campus also includes more than an acre of open space known as the Allstonway, which includes green space and a plaza for events.

“It is still possible to get things done in this current environment,” Wu said. “It is still possible for local communities to lead the way, and it's still possible to find common ground and shatter expectations of what we can achieve together.”

Just next door, on more Harvard-owned land, is the Beacon Park Yard, once a major freight yard for CSX that has now become largely obsolete after operations moved to Worcester.

The land presents another major redevelopment opportunity that would open up the community to more housing, retail, parks and access to the Charles River.

On top of that, the state has been pushing forward on its Allston Multimodal Transportation project, an estimated $2B project that would restructure part of the Massachusetts Turnpike and open up Beacon Park Yard.

“This campus is just the beginning of an Allston that will live up to our values, too,” Wu said. “A bit of the division, the separation and the harm that was caused by the interstate running through is slowly starting to be knitted back together.”