Image courtesy of city of Medford

Cummings Properties is proposing a 60,000-square-foot expansion of its Medford lab complex to meet spillover demand from life science companies.

The existing 190,000-square-foot lab complex at 200 Boston Ave. is 100-percent occupied by a mix of tech, life science and Tufts University-affiliated tenants. The Woburn developer is proposing a three-story, 60,000-square-foot office-lab building on the location of an existing one-story parking deck, part of which would be retained, along with a 300-space parking garage on the south side of the new building.

Mike Aveni, senior project architect for Cummings Properties, noted that a 2012 Metropolitan Area Planning Council planning study on the MBTA Green Line Extension recommended the parking deck be redeveloped as office and R&D space.

“The report was saying this garage needs to be developed and repurposed to maximize the value of the Green Line Extension,” Aveni said at a virtual community meeting Wednesday.

The site is one mile from the Medford/Tufts station that is currently the terminus of the transit project, and next to a site originally designated as the final stop at Mystic Valley Parkway. The station was eliminated from the $2.3 billion transit project amid cost escalation, but some officials have advocated for the station to be built in a future phase.

Doug Carr, an architect and founding member of the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance, questioned the size of the new parking structure and whether it could be converted into office space eventually.

“If the Green Line works, then you don’t need any parking there, because people are taking the T,” Carr said.

Aveni said the developer has converted parking structures into other uses elsewhere in its portfolio and could consider the same approach at 200 Boston Ave.

“There’s plenty of incentives for us not to build more parking than necessary,” he said.

The new building also would contain a pair of ground-floor retail spaces, which could be occupied by a cafe and a brewpub, Cummings Properties CEO Dennis Clarke said, but the company does not have any current commitments.

The project requires approval by the zoning board of appeals. A formal application is expected to be submitted this summer, Aveni said, with groundbreaking as soon as late 2021 and an 18-month construction period.