Housing comes to Kendall Square

Developers are planning a 531-unit , $225 million residential building in Kendall Square, which would add to the burgeoning residential development underway in Cambridge's high-technology and biotech mecca.

Extell Development Co. of New York in a joint venture with Equity Residential of Chicago plan to construct the project at 303 Third St., across from Genzyme Corp.'s famous environmentally friendly headquarters and around the corner from the Boston Marriott Cambridge hotel, according to Brian Fallon, Extell's managing partner and principal. Extell bought the land, now a vacant lot, four years ago and recently entered the venture with Equity Residential, with which it has partnered numerous times, he said.

The project is the latest in a handful of residential projects popping up in what is effectively the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's backyard. With its proximity to MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital, Kendall Square, a subway stop on the Red Line, has flourished as a commercial center for companies such as Akamai Technologies Inc., Biogen Idec Inc., and Novartis AG.

``We're the missing piece, the last piece of the buildout of Kendall Square," Fallon said. ``I consider it to be the finest residential site in East Cambridge," he said.

Kendall Square historically has offered few places to live but that is changing. The city said more than 1,200 apartments and condos exist or are in the planning stages.

The area is dotted with 5- and 10-story modern office buildings, some cutting edge, a far cry from the look in much of the rest of Cambridge, replete with 18th- and 19th-century homes and the historic Harvard University campus.

Kendall Square ``is sort of like a suburban office park in the middle of Cambridge," said David Clem, managing partner of Lyme Properties, a developer of biotech commercial and laboratory space and a 37-unit apartment there, Kendall Crossing. ``You're going to see substantial numbers of residences built over time."

Another residential project is across the street from the Equity-Extell project. Watermark Residences will officially open June 29, and 40 units on the lower floors of the 24-story tower are already occupied. Watermark has 321 luxury units with one, two, and three bedrooms and rents ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 a month, said Alex Twining, the New York developer of the $100 million project. It will include amenities such as a health club, concierge service, and parking in Genzyme's underground garage.

Twining plans a second, $70 million phase with 123 residences on 20 floors. He called his Watermark project part of the ``first wave" of residential housing in Kendall Square.

Down the road his firm plans to convert the rental apartments into condominiums. ``This is a long-term play," he said.

However, it's no sure bet that people will want to live there. Kendall Square has gained notoriety for its expanse of concrete paving and heavy rush-hour traffic. An estimated 30,000 people work within a five-minute walk of Kendall Square.

``When I get off the train, it reminds me of downtown Boston -- people bustling all over the place," said Cambridge resident Peggy Prebensen, an administrative assistant at the Middlesex County Courthouse, as she walked through Kendall Square on her commute to the subway.

``You don't think of it as a residential area," Prebensen said.

The Extell-Equity project will be completed in the summer of 2008, Extell's Fallon said. The project's architect is New York's Cetra/Ruddy.

The two-building project will have 292 rental apartments in one building and 239 condominiums in the other, with a one-acre, landscaped courtyard in between and retail space on the ground floor, he said.

Joseph F. Tulimieri, executive director of the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, which oversees the development of Kendall Square, said the area is prime for residential development, and the city is trying to promote it.

He agreed that Kendall Square was conceived as a mixed-use development.

``Typically in a mixed-use development, the residential piece always comes at the end," he said.

Kimberly Blanton can be reached at blanton@globe.com.