Back to the City Boards; The Deal Sheet
| One Franklin was to be a big, mixed-use project that would showcase a redeveloped Downtown Crossing. But Vornado?s failure to progress beyond digging a hole on Washington Street years ago prompted Mayor Menino to cancel the NewYork-based REIT's permits on Wednesday. So, it's back through the hurdles of the City approval process for whoever takes on this key parcel. |
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| Not much has changed since last spring when we snapped this picture of the excavated site on Washington Street left by Vornado and its Boston colleague, now called Boston Global Advisers led by John Hynes III. The team is shopping the site. |
| Leasing Cengage Learning subleased 26.5k SF at 25 Thomson Place, repped by Thompson Hennessey?s John Hennessey and Chris McMahon. Boris FX signed on for 14k SF in a relo from Marlborough repped by Vesper Realty Advisors? Philip Moses.Tom James Co. took 8,017 SF repped by Grubb & Ellis? Matthew Twombly and MetroLacrosse, a non-profit org that provides sports-based youth development programs, took 4,500 SF in a relo from Dorchester.*** Affinnova leased 22k SF of office space at 265 Winter Street in Waltham to expand from a smaller space in that city. RBJ&P?s Jon Varholak and Ron Friedman represented the tenant. Wyman Street Advisors repped the landlord, FM Global. *** |
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| The Bostonian Group, a Marsh McLennan insurer, has subleased 21k SF of office space at 500 Boylston St. in the Back Bay. It is relocating from Four Copley Place, where it now occupies 19k SF. CresaPartners' Rick Lowe, Brandon Leitner, Joe Doyle, and Joe Sciolla repped Bostonian while Barry Dube and Amy Unangst will oversee the project management and relo. Cushman & Wakefield's Gil Dailey and Equity Office's Matt George repped sublandlord Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing.***Sears, Roebuck renewed a 73k SF lease at 21 Pacella Park Dr. in Randolph. Colliers Meredith & Grew's Robert Cronin and Christopher Decembrele represented Sears in the transaction with landlord, Equity Industrial Partners Corp. *** EXFO signed a lease on 29k SF at 270 Billerica Rd. in Chelmsford for its new northeast HQ, relocating from 285 Mill Rd., also in Chelmsford. Colliers Meredith & Grew's North Suburban team of Matthew Daniels, Christopher Lawrence and Brian Tisbert were at the table for EXFO. Newmark Knight Frank's Christopher Curley represented the landlord, BLDG Management. *** Equity Office has inked four new downtown restaurant leases: 2,500 SF to Pasta Beach at Rowes Wharf, 2,600 SF to Zoup at 3 Center Plaza, 1,700 SF to Foumami at 225 Franklin and 266 SF to Cheeseboy at South Station. *** Four tenants leased space from Fairlane Properties at 1035 Cambridge St. in Cambridge: Genasun represented by The Stevens Group's Debra Stevens, College Year in Athens, Digital Loom represented by CBRE's Adam Brinch and Geek Offices, which expanded. Fairlane Properties' Michael Grill and Hillary Brown represented the building, which it owns. *** Dynisco signed a seven-year, 47k SF restructured office lease at 38 Forge Park in Franklin. CresaPartners' Dave Ross and Joe Sciolla repped the tenant and Barry Dube managed the build out and renovation. Construction Last week, the BRA approved these projects: The City green lighted the $84M second phase rebuilding of the Old Colony housing project in South Boston. The existing 223 apartments will be replaced by 170 units in a mix of three and four-story elevator buildings and up to seven clusters of three-story townhomes. The new design creates a low-impact, walkable community with open space, green storm water, and parking strategies with the goal of net zero energy use. The new construction materials will better integrate the buildings into the surrounding neighborhoods than did the industrial-like 1940?s public housing. The development team includes: the Boston Housing Authority and Beacon Communities Services as the developer; The Architectural Team as project architect; Nixon Peabody as legal counsel; Vanasse & Associates as transportation consultants and Epsilon Associates as the permitting consultant. *** Construction is set to start in Q1 ?11 on the $23M Eleven West project, formerly known as the Leachmore Point project, at 11 West Broadway in Southie. It consists of 50 new apartments, six of which will be affordable, and 8,230 SF of ground floor retail. The development team for the one-year project includes Ronald Simons, president of Eleven West as the proponent; Nunes Trabucco Architects as the project architect; Marc L. LaCasse as the project attorney; and BSC Group as permitting consultant/civil and site engineer/surveyor/transportation analyst. *** The $45M renovation of 368 Congress St. will transform the underused 1901 ?Stillings Building? in Fort Point into a 120-room extended stay hotel with two ground floor retail/restaurant spaces. In ?07, the BRA had approved a project to create an office there with ground-floor retail. Work is set to begin in April ?11 led by Norwich Partners of Boston as proponent; Colliers Meredith & Grew as development manager; Group One Partners as architect; McCarter & English and Brennan Dain Le Ray Wiest Torpy & Garner as legal counsel; Howard Stein Hudson as transportation consultants; and Lee Kennedy & Co. as construction managers. *** Fitchburg State University celebrated the official groundbreaking on its $57.3M new science building, the school?s first new academic facility since 1963. The Building Division of BOND will construct the addition and renovate the existing Condike Science Center. BOND, along with CBT Architects, expect to complete the addition and renovation by early ?14. People Leggat McCall Properties announced promotions that add three new partners to handle its growing business, says president Eric Sheffels. Robert Palumbo, Dante Angelucci, and Karl R. Neubauer are being moved up to become SVPs. This is the first time in five years that the company has expanded the ranks of its partners, now numbering 13. Robert Palumbo held senior positions at Beacon Capital Partners and Equity Office Properties before joining Leggat McCall in 2006. At Leggat, he has been project manager for the master-planning and permitting of more than 1M SF of development at the Christian Science Church?s 14-acre campus in Boston. Dante Angelucci, who joined Leggatt McCall in ?08, has a construction background and a law degree. He has provided development consulting services to a $1B equity fund HQ?d in Boston and is leading a management team developing the $100M Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke. Dante has worked for Meredith & Grew and Cathartes Investments. Karl Neubauer has managed permitting, design, and construction for life science, technology, and institutional projects since joining Leggat McCall Properties in ?96. Karl oversaw the recent expansion and renovation of the Boston Children's Museum, and he was responsible for the first LEED Platinum interior project in Massachusetts, Leggat McCall Properties' own rapid, 15-day transformation of its 10,000 SF HQ at 10 Post Office Square. |
