Image courtesy of Healthpeak Properties

Life science developer Healthpeak Properties has acquired a 2.1-acre parcel that could clear the way for construction of a long-sought-after bridge connecting the Quadrangle district with the MBTA’s Alewife station.

Healthpeak paid $41 million Tuesday to buy 125 Fawcett St. from a Somerville owner, Belam Realty LLC. The property is among a 36-acre cluster of properties that Healthpeak assembled over the past six months in the Quadrangle at a total acquisition cost of $625 million.

The Fawcett Street property contains a pair of buildings housing a lumber warehouse and showroom. Healthpeak executives said in a recent presentation that it could solve a problem long cited by Cambridge officials in reviewing development in the Quadrangle: improving access to the Red Line station by constructing a pedestrian and bicycle bridge across the tracks to Cambridgepark Drive.

Boston-based Cabot, Cabot & Forbes had offered to build a bridge from nearby Mooney Street to Cambridgepark Drive in proposing a 1 million-square-foot development before selling those parcels to Healthpeak in October for $123 million.

The 130-area Quadrangle district near the Belmont line is one of Cambridge’s last remaining industrial pockets but has been in demand from major developers in recent years for multifamily housing and office-lab space.

That’s prompted Cambridge city councilors to debate a moratorium on lab development in the neighborhood until the city passes a rezoning of the area, which has been debated for decades but repeatedly delayed.