BOSTON — Boston Children’s Hospital is pausing plans to occupy five floors of a new Fenway lab building it purchased two years ago, according to reporting from the Boston Business Journal (BBJ).
“In 2023, the hospital inked a purchase-and-sale agreement for 268,000 square feet at 421 Park Drive, an Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. lab building under construction adjacent to Fenway’s Landmark Center,” BBJ reported. “Children’s agreed to pay around $155 million plus future development fees for the real estate, which it bought through a condominium arrangement. The 13-story, 660,000-square-foot building is supposed to be largely complete in 2026.”
A Boston Children’s spokesperson confirmed to the BBJ that the project has been placed on hold, though no official reason was given.
“We have plans to expand our research capabilities at 421 Park Drive, but work has been paused for now. Boston Children’s remains committed to future improvements at this location as part of our broader research enterprise strategy,” Kristen Dattoli told BBJ.
Jamie Kelly, Children’s director of real estate, facilities and IT communications, added that while “construction of the building is ongoing,” the hospital “will be paused for the interior fit out of the space” it owns.
The pause comes amid broader financial and political pressures affecting health research nationwide. In recent years, research institutions have grappled with lingering effects of proposed funding cuts under the Trump administration.
Proposed cuts have created uncertainty across the biomedical research ecosystem. Hospitals and academic research centers, including Boston Children’s, have had to recalibrate long-term capital investments in light of unpredictable federal funding streams and shifting research priorities.
Boston Children’s Hospital, which routinely ranks among the nation’s top recipients of NIH pediatric research funding, has been particularly exposed to these shifts. The pause at 421 Park Drive may reflect both strategic caution and the broader challenges facing large-scale research infrastructure development in today’s volatile funding environment.
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