MassBiologics — a branch of the UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester —is looking to expand its current 25.5-acre campus on Walk Hill Street in Mattapan for a new manufacturing facility on adjacent land along the Harvard Street perimeter at the old Boston State Hospital site.

The four-acre parcel is part of a legislative bill now with the House Ways & Means Committee meant to transfer the property to MassBiologics at market rate prices.

“This added land would allow us to expand and potentially move into more diverse advanced therapeutics,” said Frank Fazio, deputy executive vice chancellor at MassBiologics. “We’re going through a process now where we’re taking a close look at our strategic direction. We’re trying to identify spaces where we need to make investments.

He continued, “We’re looking at that entire landscape of advanced therapeutics and making sure we’re staying relevant and in sync with the people developing new therapeutics. We don’t know where it will take us, but we’re excited about how rapidly the field of biologic therapeutics is moving here.”

MassBiologics started working out of the 25.5-acre Mattapan campus in 2005 when they put up a manufacturing building. They then built a research and administration building in 2010. There has been no expansion of manufacturing there since the facility opened, and no expansion at all in Mattapan for more than a decade, despite the hot biotech market in other areas of Boston.

State Rep. Russell Holmes said discussions for the expansion on the final four acres at the state hospital property have been ongoing for the past three years, with the timing beginning to ripen last summer. He filed the current legislation jointly with state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz in July.

For Holmes, the expansion is a no-brainer and one that will bring more of an industry to Mattapan that isn’t often located here. “When you think about it, in MassBiologics we have a public, FDA-approved vaccine manufacturer in the heart of Mattapan from the UMass Medical campus,” he said. “If we prepare for the next 100 years, do we prepare for that future to be in Mattapan? I believe so.

“These jobs pay a lot of money and I want these jobs in my neighborhood where people can just walk to them. These are jobs of the future and I want them in Mattapan.”

Any new manufacturing facility could carry a price tag of anywhere between $100 million and $200 million. Fazio said there is no timeline right now on construction; they are focusing on getting control of the land while engaging in a strategic planning process to identify areas where they might expand their manufacturing.

The facility mostly makes liquid products for injection or infusion, focusing on growing organisms that produce a biological molecule. Fazio said they essentially “grow, collect, purify and then mix up” these biologics.

Holmes added that much of what is done is not the profitable biotech products, but rather for things that are good for the world, but don’t command large profits.

“They do the things society needs most, like rabies shots and cholera vaccines,” he said. “That’s not profitable, but it is good for the world that people don’t die of rabies or cholera. We have to fund and support these solutions. That’s what this new facility will continue to push forward.”

As to the jobs potential if the deal goes through, one point that has been brought up is that many of the jobs that likely will be available, are highly technical and haven’t traditionally gone to residents of Mattapan and Dorchester residents. Fazio said that despite the technical nature of positions, being “teachable” is the key ingredient. Since MassBiologics is based in Worcester, a lot of job openings were only posted in the Worcester area, he said, adding that they are trying to correct that with advertising and job fairs that are more local to Mattapan and Dorchester.

“We find the most important characteristic of someone in biological manufacturing is the characteristic of being teachable,” Fazio said. “They don’t necessarily need to have experience in biology or chemistry or have worked in a biological manufacturing industry. It’s really about being open minded … following written instructions, being completely dependable…We have been able to get more employees from the neighborhood. We’ve been more successful recently.”

He added the company has internships for high school and college students. Last year, he said, all their interns were from communities surrounding the facility, including Mattapan and Dorchester.

Holmes said the expansion should spark a conversation about getting Black and Brown students into a pipeline that will end with a job at MassBiologics that they can walk to. He said since talk of expansion began, he has been working extensively with MassBiologics about getting students at the Brooke Charter and other high schools nearby into STEM training that would qualify them for these jobs. He noted there are more than 30 openings at the campus right now for qualified people.

“We want to help our public university and our communities of color,” he said. “We want to put industries in neighborhoods you don’t see them in. You don’t see this in Mattapan. You will now…There’s nothing else like it in Mattapan.”

The potential expansion is still very much in its infancy stage, so there has been no indication of what the design might look like. However, Fazio said, it would match the look of existing buildings

Holmes noted that if the expansion goes through, it would be the final distribution of land from the old hospital site, a process that has been ongoing for almost 30 years. Any new building would be subject to the square footage fee that is paid into a Community Activity Committee (CAC) trust fund, the assets of which are annually distributed to local organizations via applications. The fund now contains close to $1 million.