Exchange South End

JLL Boston will recruit tenants for Boston-based developer Abbey Group, which is expected to break ground next year on a 1.6-million-square-foot office and lab complex on Albany Street in the South End.

The Boston Planning and Development Agency in August approved the Exchange South End complex, to be built on a 5.6-acre property at 540 Albany St. formerly occupied by the Boston Flower Exchange wholesalers. Plans include ground-floor retail, incubator and civic space and a 1-acre public park named Albany Green.

The Abbey Group envisions Exchange South End as the linchpin of a new life science cluster feeding off of Boston University’s Medical School campus and startups expanding out of BU’s Bio Square Discovery and Innovation Center.

Up to 840,000 square feet of lab-ready space will be built on the lower floors within the four-building complex. Construction will begin in the spring or summer of 2019 with completion in early 2021, The Abbey Group said.

Office and lab development has begun to leapfrog the Massachusetts Turnpike into the South End’s Albany Street corridor following the neighborhood’s recent multifamily boom.

Burlington-based Nordblom Co. broke ground this summer on an 8-story speculative office tower atop its 321 Harrison Ave. garage.

Vacancies in the 1.25-million South End/Crosstown office submarket are less than half the citywide average at 4.5 percent, according to Colliers International research.

JLL’s Bill Barrack, Matt Daniels, Ryan Enright, Ben Coffin, Dan Cavanaugh, Stephen Steinberg and Julia Georgules are handling the Exchange South End assignment.