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by Kristen Green

Kendall Square offers everything a growing biotech company could want: nearby academic brainpower, convenient public transportation and plenty of sparkling new lab space.

Everything, that is, except for much in the way of lunch spots, and places to shop.

But that could soon change. Thousands of square feet of retail space is slated to house restaurants, pharmacies, dry cleaners, and even a grocery store.

Beyond offering conveniences to the thousands of workers in the area, the retail shops will also help complete the transformation of Kendall Square from an area devoid of street life to a neighborhood with an active, lively feel.

"We used to walk down the street and we wouldn't bump into anybody," said John McQuaid, senior real estate officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's drastically changed in the last five years."

But such is the continued shortage of basic eateries that ``you can't get in the door" at lunchtime at a Quiznos fast food shop that opened on Main Street in October, said Jeff Lockwood, who works at nearby Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research Inc. When he joined Novartis in 2003, Lockwood said, his lunch choices were "zero at the time."

Now, developers are banking on the staying power of the life sciences industry and setting aside space for shops and cafes in virtually every new and remodeled building in the square.

More shops and restaurants are also planned for One Assembly Square, the only real retail presence in the neighborhood. David Clem, managing partner of Lyme Properties, acknowledges that the 42,000 square feet he has set aside for retail in three buildings may not immediately pay off. But, "It's the right thing to do to create a neighborhood." Clem bets that as more condos and apartments are built, there will be even more demand for retail space in Kendall. He hopes to reveal the opening of a health club in one of his buildings this year and is in talks with Trader Joe's. A spokeswoman for Trader Joe's said it has no immediate plans for a supermarket.

Part of his motivation, Clem said, is tenants who have told him they want lab space in locations where there is more to do. "They want a 24/7 environment," he said. He believes a theater campus scheduled to open in four years could be just the answer. The nonprofit Constellation Center is designing a four-theater, state-of-the-art campus on property Clem sold on Kendall Street. The group's president, Glenn KnicKrehm, predicted the theaters would draw up to 1.2 million customers a year. The $70 plus million theater will be located on a city block across the street from Genzyme Corp.'s headquarters, where MBTA access is convenient and parking options abundant.

The theaters, which will be able to accommodate 1,850 people, are designed to be in use almost around the clock for MIT lectures, biotech industry meetings, movies, and music and theater performances.

Lester Barber, Cambridge's director of land use and zoning, said developers have seized upon the area's potential. He said a restaurant is proposed at the Broad Institute on Main Street, space has been set aside for shops in a residential building on Ames Street, and retail space is proposed in a condo and apartment project planned on Third Street. And MIT is adding about 10,000 square feet for retail to two of its Technology Square buildings between Broadway and Main Street.

McQuaid said new labs and offices have brought more people to the area. "There's just more demand," he said. "People need services, they need places to eat, they need drugstores."

But Robert Beal, a partner in Beal Cos. of Boston, which bought One Kendall Square three months ago for $210.5 million, said the square still has a long way to go. He has hired architect Howard F. Elkus to reenergize the development, which includes the the Blue Room restaurant and the Kendall Square Cinema. "You just need to create something that is going to attract people," he said.