CAMBRIDGE, MA—The estimated $1.2-billion Kendall Square Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus here has advanced to a critical stage in the approval process. MIT has announced that it has filed its Project Review and Planned Unit Development special permit applications with the Cambridge Planning Board.

MIT is proposing to build six new buildings on MIT-owned parking lots in the East Campus/Kendall Square area, including three for research and development, two for housing, and one for retail and office space. The Cambridge City Council approved MIT's rezoning petition in April 2013, which defined the parameters of the proposed development. The full review of the special permit applications will likely take several months. MIT could reportedly begin construction sometime next year if all approvals are secured by year-end 2015.

The Kendall Square Initiative will produce 500 net new housing units for graduate students and for market use, more than 100,000 square feet of new and repositioned ground-floor retail, and nearly three acres of new and repurposed connected open spaces, along with new research and development space. According to MIT filings, the maximum amount of research and development space to be built as part of the initiative is 980,000 square feet. The height of the buildings will range from 150 feet to 300 feet high. The minimum scope of the residential development will be 240,000 square feet. According to its filing, the plan calls for approximately 50 affordable housing units and 240 market rate units.

“Today's filing represents a key step forward in getting to an exciting future for Kendall Square,” MIT executive vice president and treasurer Israel Ruiz says. “It will likely take six to 10 years to complete this vision, but I am really thrilled about how Kendall Square and MIT's East Campus will be positively transformed in the coming decade.”

“As a bold new gateway to MIT, Kendall Square opens a new frontier for us to reimagine the relationship between town and gown,” MIT Dean Hashim Sarkis says. “Public spaces open into the campus and allow students, professors, residents, and visitors to mix. I am very excited for that future to be set in motion and believe we have all the right ingredients in place for it to unfold.”

The MIT Investment Management Co. is leading the public review effort under the direction of the provost and the executive vice president and treasurer. MIT Investment Management managing director Steve Marsh says the first Cambridge Planning Board hearing on the Kendall Square Initiative will likely be held sometime in September.