Cambridge & Kendall Square is a trophy-tier Class A submarket of Boston with average asking rent around $110/sqft/yr.
Life sciences capital of the world. · Tier: trophy · Avg rent: $110/sqft/yr
Cambridge and Kendall Square hold the world's deepest life-sciences cluster. Lab and office trade at meaningful premiums to Boston-side Class A. Vacancy in trophy lab is structurally tight.
Pharma, biotech, gene therapy, venture capital.
20-30,000 sqft floor plates with lab-ready capability.
MBTA Red Line (Kendall/MIT, Central, Harvard).
Strong walking and biking commute culture.
MIT campus, Charles River, Cambridgeside.
Cambridge & Kendall Square is one of 6 Class A submarkets we cover in Boston, classified as trophy tier with an average asking rent around $110/sqft/yr. Compared with the broader Boston Class A stock, Cambridge & Kendall Square typically attracts Pharma, biotech, gene therapy, venture capital and competes most directly with the city's other trophy submarkets on building specification, transit access, and amenitisation.
Adjacent submarkets to study alongside Cambridge & Kendall Square: Financial District, Seaport, Back Bay, Kendall Square. The full Boston submarket atlas is at /cities/boston.
For an institutional Class A occupier evaluating Cambridge & Kendall Square, the highest-leverage analyses to commission next are the rent benchmark, the concession-package comparable, and the ESG performance baseline. Class A Atlas covers each as a dedicated topic page for this submarket:
Terminology specific to Boston Class A leasing and to the trophy tier: Class A, Trophy asset, Effective rent, Concession package, TI allowance, Submarket tier.
Reviewed by Miriam Hollander — Lead market analyst. Last updated 2026-04-15. See our methodology and editorial standards.