Yale will buy a 136-acre complex near its campus to add to its medical and scientific research.

The 17-building Bayer Health-Care site is off I-95 in West Haven and Orange, Connecticut, and contains 550,000 square feet of laboratory space, as well as office, manufacturing, and warehouse space.

The university did not disclose the price it agreed to pay, saying that those details would be released when the deal is closed.

The acquisition is part of a drive begun by Yale in 2003 to increase the amount of space it dedicates to scientific research, and is consistent with a trend among other Ivy League universities. Columbia and Harvard Universities are also pursuing expansion projects dedicated largely to science facilities, with Columbia expanding on 17 acres in West Harlem, and Harvard expanding on 200 acres in Boston’s Allston neighborhood.

“The availability of Bayer’s science laboratories will enable us to undertake research programs we would not have had space to develop for a decade or more,” space, Yale’s president Richard Levin said yesterday said in a statement.

The new property adds to 50 acres that Yale already owns in West Haven. Despite the acquisition, Mr. Levin said in the statement that “the heart of the Yale campus will always remain in New Haven,” noting that the university had committed to build more than 2 million square feet of new facilities in New Haven over the next six years.