The cost of the five-building expansion is $600 million, according to published reports that a Science Center statement fails to confirm. A first building, containing 160,000 sf of office/lab space, 15,000 sf of retail and parking for 500 vehicles, is expected to break ground this July, according to the statement.

An additional 850,000 sf is expected to reach completion by 2010, with the remaining space awaiting market demand. The plan also calls for construction of a 500,000-sf residential high rise with 260 units and a 350,000-sf, 225-room hotel and conference center. The center has yet to determine who will operate the hotel and housing components.

Paul Garvey, senior director of the local office of Cushman & Wakefield, handles leasing of the Science Center. "We're in the stage now where when companies grow, they have to leave the city for larger space in the suburbs," Garvey tells GlobeSt.com. "Expansion is needed to not only provide space for a diversity of new companies, ranging from research entities to publishers of scientific journals, but also provide space for existing tenants to expand in place."

He acknowledges that a portion of the leasing, "but not all of it," will come from the center's existing built-in market. The asking rental rates have not yet been determined, he says, adding, "lab space is more expensive than office space, because of the added investment in systems and materials." On condition of anonymity, a broker tells GlobeSt.com rent rates will probably average in the high $20s per sf.