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New England Strikes Back

Boston
Boston
July 7, 2011 Bisnow
New England Strikes Back
At our Retail Summit (we know that was last week, but it's still on our minds), landlords with national footprints shared good news about Boston and New England: they're outperforming the rest of the US.
New England Strikes Back
The 350 in our audience learned from Target?s John Griffin that in his nationwide portfolio New England's Class-A stores are almost 100% leased, compared to about 90% for the US as a whole. (Aren't we always just a cut above?) Centro Properties' Barry Rodenstein had a similar story. In his Northeast portfolio, stores are 92.5% leased compared to 88% companywide. And that's just the beginning of the neat things on deck for New England retail.
New England Strikes Back
In the crowd, we found Brown Rudnick's Tom Phillips with Feldco Development Corp?s Jeffrey Feldman and the Gund Partnership?s John Prokos. Jeff is working in a JV with the Elma Lewis Partners to build a $308M, 1M SF mixed-use project on nearly eight acres across the street from Ruggles Station. Still in the planning and permitting stage, Jeff says construction is about 18 months away, but the JV won BRA designation as redeveloper of the site earlier this year. Tremont Crossing (at Tremont and Whittier streets) is planned as a three-building, mixed-use complex with parking for 2,000 cars. In the future, Jeff tells us that it might include a fourth residential building.
New England Strikes Back
As this rendering illustrates, the project will have unusual colors530k SF of vertically stacked large format retail on four floors with 45k SF of smaller ground-floor retail shops, 300k SF of offices, and a 58k SF museum for the National Center for Afro-American Artists. It's being designed by Gund and Stull and Lee. Jeff says he's optimistic about attracting an institutional investor given the project?s location. It is across the street from Northeastern University and Ruggles Station, a major transit hub. Other academic neighbors include Wheelock College and Wentworth Institute of Technology. That puts about 45,000 students within a half mile. Also nearby is the Longwood Medical Area with its 24 medical institutions including Harvard Medical School, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Children's Hospital.
New England Strikes Back
We snapped KlingStubbins? Scott Simpson as the event wound down. His firm is working on a new 250k SF research lab for Forest City on Mass Ave in Cambridge. They are doing preliminary planning for Federal Realty at Assembly Square in Somerville and a lab renovation at Fresh Pond for Biomed Realty. Down in NYC, KlingStubbins is teamed up with Alexandria Real Estate on the East River Science Park (aka Alexandria Center in New York). Not neglecting the rest of the world, KlingStubbins also has projects going in China (a new corporate HQ for Minmetals in Beijing) and Russia (the new Far Eastern Federal University near Vladivostok).
New England Strikes Back
By Aug. 1, we'll be able to use the new main entry designed by KlingStubbins at 640 Memorial Dr, a dramatic multi-story glazed atrium space defined by curved walls. MIT Real Estate is converting the former Ford assembly plant into biotechnology laboratories for Sanofi-aventis.
New England Strikes Back
We snapped event sponsor Nexamp?s John Murphy and Ryan Casey, who told us about some recent clean energy projects that the company develops, builds, owns, and operates. Nexamp specializes in renewable energy products for itself and for landlords. Nexamp developed the 110 KW photovoltaic solar project for Boston Properties at the Biogen IDEC HQ in Weston. It also completed a 160KW solar project for the Greater Boston Food Bank in partnership with Boston Community Capital.
New England Strikes Back
We caught up to sponsor Posternak Blankstein & Lund?s Jo-Ann Marzullo, the panel moderator, chatting with Lincoln Property's Greg Cahill (and two guys who also really wanted to be in the picture). Her full-service law firm has a specialized retail real estate practice, which handled The Abbey Group's recent $530M sale of Landmark Center to Samuels & Associates. Now, Jo-Ann is repurposing a nearly 66k SF former department store in faraway Greenfield. In ?97, when Rich?s left, Staples leased all of the space. Staples recently renewed and contracted into about 24k SF. Jo-Ann is helping the landlord, Syfeld Greenfield Associates, to lease the remaining space.
New England Strikes Back
Flying the flag for another sponsor, Spagnolo Gisness & Associates, is Aurora Cammarata whom we snapped with her friend Mark MacRae. Aurora tells us that SG&A is working on some major projects. It's in the planning and design phase for Sam Park & Associates? redevelopment of the former Polaroid site in Waltham. Ultimately planned for 11 buildings, SG&A is designing the gut renovation of what will be a 150k SF office building with two retail units and parking. It's also starting design work for a new 100k SF Market Basket superstore and a new 60k SF retail building, Town Square. The planning, architecture, and design firm is also working on Alexandria's life science project in Kendall Square where SG&A is designing a new building as it plans for the preservation and reuse of some historic brick buildings on the Cambridge site. 
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Related Topics: Alexandria Real Estate, Far Eastern Federal University, BioMed Realty, Scott Simpson, The Abbey Group, Harvard Medical School, New England, Wentworth Institute, Northeastern University, Alexandria Center, National Center, Fresh Pond, Landmark Center, Federal Realty Trust, Centro Properties, Assembly Square, Sam Park, Town Square, John Murphy, Brown Rudnick, John Griffin, East River Science Park, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Greater Boston Food Bank, SF Market Basket, Barry Rodenstein, Tom Phillips, Feldco Development Corp, Gund Partnership, Ruggles Station, Tremont Crossing, Boston Community Capital, MIT Real Estate