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Another plan to add lab space, this time near Andrew Square

The mixed-use project, on 9.1 acres, would total 2.5 million square feet

An artist's rendering of one of the four buildings planned for the Dorchester Avenue project, dubbed On the Dot.Core Investments.

A vast lot just north of Andrew Square Station on the Red Line could soon become a mixed-use development anchored by a 15-story lab-and-office building, under plans filed Monday.

Core Investments told the Boston Planning & Development Agency that it wants to clean up a 9.1-acre former scrapyard along Dorchester Avenue and put four buildings on the site over several years. They would add up to about 2.5 million square feet of commercial space. The company also would convert two warehouses — one of which had been slated to hold an Amazon distribution facility until city officials shot that idea down — into research or lab space.

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The proposal highlights the fast-growing demand for space for life-science companies in more sections of the city, as drug makers and researchers look to spread beyond their traditional home in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. The project promises to transform one of the last industrial area of South Boston, a swath of truck lots and light industry that the BPDA has earmarked for far-denser mixed-use development.

“On the Dot (as the project is dubbed) represents a tremendous opportunity to transform the underused industrial land west of Dorchester Avenue, promising jobs, housing, and amenities that will benefit the entire city of Boston as well as the local neighborhood of Andrew Square,” said John Cissel, president of development at Core Investments, which controls about 20 acres west of Dorchester Avenue and led planning for the nearby 750-unit Washington Village housing development.

It plans to start with a 15-story building at 505 Dorchester Ave. that would include 675,000 square feet of life-science or tech and office space, along with ground-floor retail space. Eventually, the site would accommodate four buildings with a mix of uses, three of them geared toward office and lab space, with the fourth potentially for housing.

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There would be a new street grid on the west side of Dorchester Avenue, 1.1 acres of open space, and features designed to improve flood resiliency in the low-lying area.

More detailed plans are likely in the coming weeks, with neighborhood and city reviews to follow.

The BPDA closely studied the site as part of its Plan Dot Ave planning study, which covers an area along Dorchester Avenue roughly from Andrew Square Station north to Broadway.

That plan, approved in 2016, calls for 12 million to 16 million square feet of development in the corridor, split 50-50 between residential and commercial uses. At about nine acres, Core’s project is the single-largest development site in the corridor, though several other sizable developments are in the works, including a 317,000-square-foot office-and-lab tower at 333 Dorchester Ave., which is under BPDA review.



Tim Logan can be reached at timothy.logan@globe.com. Follow him @bytimlogan.