Boeing MIT Kendall Square. Photo: PRNewsfoto and Boeing

Boeing will open the new Boeing Aerospace and 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 square feet of research and lab space inside a new 17-floor building 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 and developing enabling technologies.

“It’s fitting that Boeing will join the Kendall/MIT innovation family,” said MIT Provost Martin Schmidt. “MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the oldest program of its kind in the United States, and excels at its mission of developing new air transportation concepts, autonomous systems, and small satellites through an intensive focus on cutting-edge education and research.”