Boeing has announced plans to open the new Boeing Aerospace & Autonomy Center in Cambridge, Mass., becoming the first major tenant of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) new mixed-use district in Kendall Square. Under the agreement, Boeing will lease 100,000 sq ft of research and lab space inside a new 17-floor building at 314 Main Street in Cambridge.

The new center will house employees from Boeing and subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences who will focus on designing, building, and flying autonomous aircraft, as well as developing enabling technologies. The investment in the new center follows the recent creation of Boeing NeXt, a new organization focused on future of travel technologies including the development of a next-generation air traffic management system that will enable piloted and autonomous vehicles to safely coexist in the same airspace.

Employees at the center will help develop new technologies in support of Boeing NeXt programs. Employees from Aurora Flight Sciences' existing research and development center in Kendall Square will move into the new center and operate it on behalf of Boeing once complete.