This Week's Boston Deal Sheet
Real estate firm Cargo Ventures secured $787K for energy upgrades at one of its East Boston properties in the city's first approved Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy loan.
Greenworks Lending from Nuveen provided the loan through MassDevelopment’s C-PACE program.
The C-PACE financing mechanism gives property owners funds for immediate improvements and is typically repaid over 20 to 30 years through tax assessments on the property. MassDevelopment created its C-PACE program in July 2020, and 48 municipalities, including Boston, have since opted in.
Cargo Ventures’ C-PACE loan will go to HVAC upgrades, a new roof and LED lighting for its 121K SF office at 440 William M. McClellan Highway. The 46-year-old building houses 13 tenants. Officials estimate the energy upgrades will save the landlord $460K over the building’s lifetime.
Greenworks Lending from Nuveen in September issued the first-ever C-PACE loan in Massachusetts, lending $450K to Abercrombie Greenfield for energy improvements at its office at 56 Bank Row in Greenfield.
SALES
Braintree-based real estate firm John M. Corcoran & Co. paid $54M to Structure Tone Equities for 1205 Hancock St., an apartment building in Quincy. The eight-story residential building with ground-floor retail includes 111 units and was built in 2011.
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Camber Development spent $50M for 275 Bodwell St. in Avon, a 190K SF industrial property formerly owned by Framingham-based Atlantic-Bodwell Realty. The warehouse was built in 1984 and sits 20 miles south of downtown Boston.
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RPT Realty paid $108M to O’Connor Capital Partners for the Dedham Mall at 300 Providence Highway after previously announcing it would acquire the 510K SF Greater Boston grocery-anchored shopping center, which is managed by The Wilder Cos. The center was 91.8% leased at the time of RPT’s September announcement.
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The Cubes at Plainville, a company tied to Midwest-based industrial developer Clayco, paid $10.6M to secure a 53-acre parcel at 27 Cross St. in Plainville, near the Rhode Island border. The site, previously owned by couple Roger and Mary Ann Farrar and Jean Pasquantonio, is a former horse training facility. CRG earlier this year submitted plans to Plainville for a 663K SF distribution and logistics facility.
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Avanath Capital Management spent $22.5M for the Logo Apartments in Roxbury, including 73 units across 11 buildings. The portfolio was previously owned by Affirmative Housing and also includes a supermarket, a design studio and two cell tower leases with T-Mobile.
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Shri Swamine LLC paid $12.5M for the 93K SF Village Mall Shopping Center at 436 Broadway on Route 28 in Methuen. The fully leased open-air shopping center includes 17 tenants and was sold by 1180 Beacon Properties and Village Mall Inc., which owned the property for more than 40 years. Summit Realty Partners’ Chris McMahon, Travis Ginsberg and Frank Normandin, who began leasing services at the mall in 2016, marketed the property.
EXECS
Architecture and interior design firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz hired Kristen O’Gorman as associate principal and senior designer to work on SCB’s life sciences portfolio in addition to office and adaptive reuse projects. She joins SCB’s East Coast office, which opened in June. She was formerly an associate senior designer at SGA.
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Engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger announced it will appoint James Parker as CEO and Niklas Vigener as chief technical officer at the beginning of next year. Parker is the firm’s head of structural engineering and structural mechanics and Vigener is the head of building technology. The national engineering firm and building enclosure expert works on projects in a wide variety of asset classes and has two Boston-area offices.
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Taurus Investment Holdings named Nancy Scotton as the firm’s chief financial officer. Scotton has more than 25 years of experience, including chief financial officer positions at private equity real estate funds, most recently at Landmark Partners. Taurus Investment Holdings focuses on multifamily, office, logistics, mixed-use and renewable energy assets.
LEASES
WS Development signed 24 new leases across its regional outdoor shopping centers. The Derby Street Shops in Hingham welcomed seven new retailers, MarketStreet Lynnfield brought on eight new tenants, The Street Chestnut Hill signed five new tenants, and Legacy Place in Dedham is now home to four new vendors.
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Educational media firm FableVision signed a 4,100 SF lease for a new headquarters at 353 Newbury St. in Boston’s Back Bay. The company moves from its former space at 308 Congress St. in the Seaport. Boston Realty Advisors represented FableVision in the lease.
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Maine-based accounting company Baker Newman Noyes signed a new lease at the 12-story 133 Federal St. building in Boston’s Financial District. The terms and size of the lease were undisclosed. Boston Realty Advisors represented Baker Newman Noyes in the lease.
THIS & THAT
Cushman & Wakefield will market Lesley University’s Cambridge Connection portfolio, 10 multifamily and office properties between Harvard Square and Porter Square totaling nearly 85K SF. Lesley is selling its properties as part of a redevelopment of its three Cambridge campuses.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Chris Sower, Bruce Lusa, Jonathan Bryant, John Flaherty, Kevin Jones, Brian Doherty, Dave Pergola, Pete Rogers, Tom Sullivan and Ross Fishman will market the assets.
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ARCO National Construction began construction of a 150K SF manufacturing facility in Devens for UK-based Watson-Marlow, which produces life sciences manufacturing components. The Scannell Properties-owned project at 15 Bulge Road is expected to be completed in late 2022. Watson-Marlow and Colliers also announced the company's lease at the property for an undisclosed length of time.
