The Deal Sheet
Jumbo Capital of Hingham and investor Brad Spencer closed on their $50M purchase of 100 Crosby Dr in Bedford from Divco West on Friday. (No reason to drag it out into the weekend.) Downtown Boston may be the darling of many investors, but the ‘burbs hold promise for this pair.
The 52-acre site includes 18 acres where the new owners can build housing and 10 acres where they can develop more office. The vacancy rate in this submarket has been cut by half in the last two years—it’s now around 10%—and there are few large blocks available, Brad tells us. Divco purchased the 262k SF property in ’07 for $61.5M.
Oracle leases the entire building and is paying below-market rents, which explains in part the sale price. But Brad says, as a tenant with strong credit that’s expanding in various suburban locations, it's great to have on the roster. The property’s development opportunity is likely to attract another tech tenant since there are several others in the area. Also, the building has the upgraded power and HVAC that techies require. After working to snag this deal for four months, Brad says, “Everyone here is happy and behaving well.”
CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Cape Wind moved closer to building its $2.5B offshore wind farm in waters along the Massachusetts coast by signing construction contracts with a JV of Weeks Marine of Cranford, NJ, and Manson Construction Co of Seattle. Work could start on the foundation by next spring and Cape Wind may start producing some electricity by 2016 as the nation’s first offshore wind farm.
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Historic Boston, Roslindale Village Main Street, and Peregrine Group of Rumford, RI started construction yesterday on the $13M project that will transform the former MBTA substation in Roslindale and other property into Parkside on Adams. The new mixed-use project with 43 apartments has been 12 years in the making.
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High Point started construction on a new 63k SF, 72-bed psychiatric treatment facility in Middleborough on the site of the abandoned former Cranberry Specialty Hospital. The development team includes Campanelli Construction. High Point operates inpatient and outpatient programs in Plymouth, Brockton, New Bedford, and Taunton.
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Mayor Walsh and Historic Boston celebrated the completion of nearly $4M in redevelopment at the Alvah Kittredge House into five two-bedroom apartments, two of which are affordable. Built for Roxbury alderman, furniture maker, and Eliot Congregational Church deacon Alvah Kittredge (1798-1876), the Kittredge House is one of a handful of high-style Greek Revival period houses remaining in Boston.
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As an initial exploratory part of its $1B expansion, on Friday the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center will unveil and 2.7-acre outdoor event space lawn adjacent to its current building. Besides providing a welcome public amenity, the lawn will serve as a marketing lab to test out various concepts and products for the new space.
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Lifeworks, which provides residences, cooperative living support, employment training, and skills expansion for clients, is improving its group homes and facilities in Attleboro, Foxboro, Natick, Norwood, Plainville, Sharon, Walpole, Westwood, and Wrentham. MassDevelopment is helping to finance the work—and refi some debt—by issuing $3.5M in tax-exempt bonds that Citizens Bank purchased.
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Blue Diamond Real Estate Group paid $4M to Lansdowne Partners for 55-65 Sharp St in Hingham. Avison Young’s Kevin Malloy and Brandon Dickason repped the seller of the property that has nearly 38k SF of offices and warehouse space and land to build another 110k SF.
FINANCING
Wayside Development received $6.3M in financing through UC Funds to acquire and rehab the former St. Francis of Assisi School building near the Fellsway in Medford into 18 luxury condos. The finished condos will feature: hardwood flooring, granite countertops, slate or stone tile in bathrooms and stainless steel appliances. Nine of the condos will be triplex units with private roof decks that have views of the Boston skyline.
SALES
Main Five Zero Seven, an affiliate of Advanced Realty Management, purchased 507 Main St in Worcester for nearly $5M and secured $4.2M in financing repped by CBRE’s John Kelly.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
Isabel Acuña has been named director of project management for Avison Young’s Boston office. She’ll work with landlords and tenants, managing their projects during the pre-construction and construction phases. Previously, Isabel was on the teams of The Walsh Company and Barr & Barr.
LEASING
MARIC has leased nearly 24k SF at New England Business Center in Andover, a four-building, 237k SF master-planned office park it purchased in late ’12. Meadowbrook/TPA Associates renewed their 15k SF lease at 10 New England Business Center. Little Sprouts Growing Center signed on for 5,288 SF at 15 New England Business Center, and Andover Personnel renewed its 3,356 SF at 35 New England Business Center. CBRE/NE’s Kerry Olson Hawkins repped the landlord in all of the transactions. Cresa’s Joseph Doyle repped Meadowbrook/TPA; Cushman & Wakefield’s Matthew Adams repped Little Sprouts. Andover Personnel repped itself.
