Three years ago, when Harvard bought the 48-acre Allston Landing parcel, the University fended off bids from BU by giving its cross-river rival the option to buy 10 acres within the parcel.

If both schools decide to bid on the new land, Harvard would again attempt to avoid a bidding war with BU, Zeckhauser said.

“Its fair to say that we don’t want any kind of adversarial relationship with BU,” she said. “If there were any interest [for the land] we would like to come to some form of an agreement.”

The new pieces of land were valued at $100 to $125 million a year and a half ago. According to a Globe report, internal Turnpike Authority papers contained the estimate that Harvard would shell out as much as $150 million for the 91 acres.

But Zeckhauser said this time around, Harvard may be the less enthusiastic of the two potential buyers.

“Given its location, the land probably has less interest to us than it does to B.U.,” she added.

BU Spokesperson Colin Riley declined comment on what the school would plan to use the land for, but confirmed that BU has a strong interest in buying the property.

“For a long time we’ve had interest in this land because it’s adjacent to us,” he said.

B.U. is currently engaged in a billion-dollar capital improvement project to renovate its athletic and housing facilities.

Zeckhauser would not comment on Harvard’s dealings with B.U. or with tenant CSX, which already leases land from the University in Allston Landing North.

But she said the railroad’s indefinite presence on the new land was also a large consideration in deciding whether to place a bid.

“Any encumbrance affects how Harvard would think of a piece of land,” she said.

Nevertheless, University spokesperson Lauren Marshall said in an e-mail that the long-term nature of Harvard’s development project has kept all options on the table.

“The University looks at Allston in the long-term, and what might be potentially possible decades from now,” Marshall wrote. “We want to have as many options as possible for Harvard well into the future.”

Given the heavy infrastructure already on the property, long-range planners would have the most to gain from buying the land, said Turnpike spokesperson Sean O’Neill.