This Week's Boston Deal Sheet

The nation's largest publicly traded office landlord secured three new leases at a lab redevelopment in a bustling MetroWest suburb.

Boston Properties signed three leases at its 880 Winter St. office-to-lab conversion project in Waltham, bringing the 244K SF project to 70% leased with 166K SF combined in new commitments. The project is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2022.

TScan Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical firm researching oncology treatments at the nearby 830 Winter St., signed a 113K SF, 10-year lease at 880 Winter St. for its new office and lab headquarters space.

RVAC Medicines, a biotechnology company developing mRNA vaccines and medicines, agreed to a 37K SF lease at 880 Winter St. EdiGene, a biotech working on genome editing technologies, signed for 14K SF at the same facility. Terms of the leases were undisclosed.

Boston Properties bought the Waltham Woods office properties at 880 and 890 Winter St. in 2019 for $106M from AEW Capital Management. The developer began an office-to-lab redevelopment of the 224K SF 880 Winter St. property in February. 

The office developer's Waltham portfolio includes an office-to-lab conversion at 200 West St.; the ground-up 180 CityPoint 329K SF lab project; 153 Second Ave. and 211 Second Ave., two life sciences buildings totaling 137K SF; and a redevelopment project at 200 West St. 

LEASES

Homology Medicines signed a 91K SF lease at One Patriots Park in Bedford, extending a 68K SF existing lease and expanding with 23K SF of additional space. Landlord Jumbo Capital, with Iron Point Partners, bought the two-story, 144K SF life sciences building in Bedford off Route 128 last year for $72.5M from Longfellow Real Estate Partners and Bain Capital.

Newmark Managing Director Matt Malatesta and Executive Managing Director Torin Taylor represented Jumbo Capital, while Cresa’s Paul Delaney and Dan Sullivan represented Homology Medicines.

Brightcove entered into a lease agreement for a new 40K SF headquarters space at 281 Summer St. in Boston’s Seaport. The Boston-based software company with a video platform signed a 10-year term with an affiliate of international asset manager DWS Group and has two five-year extension options. 

SALES

Chestnut Hill-based 375 Harvard Street LLC paid $30.2M to Somerset-based Audubon Road Associates CCSPE LLC for the Crimson Court Apartments in Harvard Square in Cambridge. The 60-unit, four-story property, built in 1965, sold for approximately $503K per unit. 

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BCI IV Greater Boston IC II LLC, tied to Denver-based Black Creek Group, paid $17M for 290 Beaver St. in Franklin, a 33-year-old 82K SF warehouse. The previous owner, A6 Beaver LLC, bought the industrial property for $9M in February 2020. 

FINANCING

Spear Street Capital secured a $421.4M construction loan from CPPIB Credit Watertown US LP, a company tied to Toronto-based Canadian Pension Plan Investments, for its 705 Mount Auburn and 64 Grove St. projects. 

Spear Street Capital bought the properties from Tufts Health Plan last year for $307M. The developer plans to redevelop the former healthcare complex into a 480K SF office and lab space, including a new four-story building behind the main property. Elkus Manfredi Architects and civil engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin will shape the building’s redevelopment, slated for completion in late 2022.

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Urban Edge secured $35.3M in financing from MassHousing to renovate a 78-unit apartment complex in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. The financing includes $16.5M in tax-exempt construction financing and $18.8M in bridge loan financing. The developer will replace kitchens and bathrooms and update HVAC systems, among other fixes due to be completed in 2023. 

THIS AND THAT

Boston-based architecture firm Shepley Bulfinch acquired North Carolina-based firm PARC design lab in a move to expand its science and technology portfolio. PARC, founded in 2019, has worked with life sciences industry giants Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Longfellow Real Estate Partners. The firm’s co-founder, Jeffery Bottomley, will join Shepley Bulfinch as a principal and co-founder John Jarvis will join as a director.

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Watertown City Councilors approved the formation of an Affordable Housing Trust, which will help the city create and preserve affordable housing. The Trust replaces the Watertown Housing Partnership and will be tasked with buying smaller multifamily properties to preserve affordability, developing 20- to 50-unit affordable housing projects, providing home loans, and allowing the city to apply for state and federal tax credits, loans and grants.