The Deal Sheet
Yesterday, The Community Builders broke ground on the affordable $27M, 94-unit Worcester Loomworks (they are hoping to channel Rumpelstiltskin and weave some gold out of that loom), which will expand its portfolio in this city to 733 rental units, says CEO Bart Mitchell.
In that past 30 years, TCB has expanded into 30 cities in 14 states to become one of the nation’s largest mixed-income housing developers. For the next 30 years, it plans to deepen its presence in existing locations like Worcester where it’s been developing and managing multifamily and mixed-use properties for 25 years. TCB wants to do more than build housing—it wants to help build communities, says Bart (above right at the ground breaking with HUD's Dwayne Marsh and Congressman James McGovern). To make this and other developments financially feasible, TCB is using federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits and a state tax credit program in Massachusetts, one of few states to have adopted one.
The Loomworks, the adaptive re-use of a former mill at 93 Grand St, sits near Clark University where residents who satisfy admission requirements can attend college tuition-free. TCB has another 903 units under construction in 10 developments and 40 more projects in the pipeline. In Boston, it's renovating 146 units in the South End and completing construction on 20 townhouses at the $200M Charlesview’s Brighton Mills. Marketing just started and already 1,034 households have applied for the homes selling for about $150k under market price, Bart says.
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On Friday, TCB started permitting to build the $10M Clarion, 40 apartments and 5k SF of first-floor retail space, on a city-owned one-acre site at 311 Blue Hill Ave. If all goes well, it expects to break ground next year on the vacant parcel now owned by the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development. 27 apartments will be affordable.
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A New Balance affiliate and co-developer HYM Investments will add a $125M phase of 250 housing units and 15k SF of retail to the $500M complex it’s building on Guest Street in Brighton. The mixed-use development includes: a new HQ for the shoemaker, other office, retail, sports facilities, hotel, open space, and parking. The architect is Elkus Manfredi.
KIPP Academy Boston Charter School will build a $22.5M K-8 school at 1464 Blue Hill Ave in Mattapan. It will include: a four-story academic building, a two-story cafeteria and administrative offices, and a one-story gym to serve up to 650 students and 84 faculty and staff. Arrowstreet is the lead architect, and Copley-Wolff Design Group is the landscape architect on the project.
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P-3 Partners won a one-month extension (until Sept. 18) of its tentative designation to develop the complicated Tremont Crossing project in Roxbury to have more time to secure tenants and financing.
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Life Science startup Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing is re-developing part of a 116k SF building in Lee into a new production plant that will feature: clean rooms, labs, and work rooms for product formulation, final inspection, and packaging. Some financing came through a $4M bond issued by MassDevelopment and purchased by Berkshire Bank.
Sales
Synergy Investments and partner GreenOak will pay $143M to Broadway Real Estate Partners for Ten/10 Post Office Sq, industry sources tell us. Brokered by Cushman & Wakefield, the 434k SF building in a prime downtown location was owned by Broadway for eight years.
A Daniel René Capital Partners affiliate, Mount Vernon Partners, paid the Unitarian Universalist Association $11.5M for 39-41 Mount Vernon St on Beacon Hill, which it will convert to condominiums. This is the fourth and final building of the UUA’s Beacon Hill portfolio to be sold. The Association, which has moved to 24 Farnsworth St in the Seaport District, was repped in the sale by Boston Realty Advisors’ Chris Sower and advised by Leggat McCall Properties.
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A Zurich North America member, advised by New York City-based Zurich Alternative Asset Management, closed on its nearly $53M purchase ($513/ SF ) of 51 Melcher St in Fort Point from Synergy Investments and partner Independencia Asset Management. In 2012, Synergy bought the building—empty—for $10.5M then spent two years renovating and leasing.
Leasing
NetBrain, the developer of computer-aided network engineering software, will relo its HQ to nearly 55k SF at 15 Network Dr in Burlington. Cushman & Wakefield’s Mark Roth, Matthew Malatesta, and Blake McLaughlin repped landlord Nordblom.
Financing
LCB Senior Living secured $82.4M in financing as equity and to acquire 322 total units of seniors housing in Vermont: The Lodge at Shelburne Bay in Shelburne and the Lodge at Otter Creek in Middlebury. Cushman & Wakefield’s Richard Swartz, Jay Wagner, Aaron Rosenzweig and Stuart Kim directed the placement.
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CURO Enterprises secured $10.4M in financing to acquire 130 Lizotte Dr, a 100k SF office building in Marlborough and 118 Turnpike Rd, an 80k SF office building in Southborough. HFF’s Greg LaBine, Brett Paulsrud, and Martha Nay placed the loans with Blue Hills Bank.
