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MIT selected as Exchange Partner for Volpe project

| The GSA Blog Team
Post filed in: Public Buildings Service

After receiving proposals from multiple respondents, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has made an initial selection of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the Exchange Partner to redevelop the U.S. Department of Transportation’s John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Mass.

Both GSA and MIT will now select a design team to design an approximately 400,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art federal facility to replace the aging Volpe Center.

Upon completion of the new facility, the remainder of the 14-acre campus will be transferred to MIT.

The campus, located at 55 Broadway in Kendall Square, consists of six buildings with a total approximate gross floor area of 375,000 square feet, two surface parking lots, and open, landscaped land.

MIT, which sits less than a quarter of a mile from the Volpe Center, already owns an assortment of other buildings around the neighborhood, including offices and labs.

In August 2014, GSA released a Request for Information (RFI) seeking input from the real estate development community which yielded significant interest. In June 2015, GSA, in consultation with DOT, issued the Request for Qualifications (RFQ), which was the first phase of the two phase solicitation process, followed by the Request for Proposal (RFP) in 2016.