This Week's Boston Deal Sheet

Cleveland-based The NRP Group sold a newly developed apartment building on Revere's waterfront to UBS for $80M, according to filings posted Friday in Massachusetts Land Records.

NRP broke ground in 2019 on the 145-unit apartment project at 323 Revere Beach Blvd., using $35.3M in construction financing from Capital One. It completed the building, branded BLVD at Revere Beach, in June 2021. 

NRP and UBS both declined to comment on the sale. 

The apartment building includes a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. The development also includes 2,500 SF of ground-floor retail and 5,800 SF of amenity space. 

UBS is also active in the Cambridge market, where it is partnering with New England Development on its renovation of the former Macy's site at 20 CambridgeSide. That project, consisting of a 365K SF lab and office building, is part of a bigger redevelopment of the CambridgeSide Mall.

SALES

The DSF Group paid $77M to acquire a 305-unit apartment community at 40 Locke St. in Haverhill, CBRE announced. It didn't disclose the seller, but property records indicate it was owned by Brookfield. CBRE’s Simon Butler, Biria St. John and John McLaughlin represented the seller and procured the buyer. 

The property, branded Hamel Mill Lofts, consists of four buildings and includes a clubhouse, gym and movie theater. The buildings are part of a historic adaptive reuse project of the L.H. Hamel Leather Co., which was built between 1886 and 1929 and was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 2009.

LEASES

A development team including Related Beal, Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund and the Kavanaugh Advisory Group filed a letter of intent with the Boston Planning & Development Agency for a 319K SF research and development project at 22 Drydock Ave. that Vertex Pharmaceuticals has already signed on to occupy.

As part of the proposal, the developers leased the ground floor to the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, which promotes the study of marine DNA, according to the BPDA filing. Related Beal didn't respond to a request for comment on the size of the lease. The filing said that the institute will help "strengthen their marine research and biomanufacturing curricula for Boston residents."

FINANCING

MassDevelopment provided a $2.5M loan to New Gorham LLC for the renovation of a vacant historic building at 80 Gorham St. in downtown Lowell. The proposed development would include two units of ground-floor retail space and 12 market-rate apartments. 

The building, constructed in 1829, was once a hotel that operated under various names, including The Lowell City Hotel, City Hotel and the Appleton House. The building had been abandoned for nearly a decade until it was condemned by the city in 2019. Rehabilitation on the building began last year, and the project is expected to be completed in February 2023.

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MassHousing will distribute $4.6M in Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants to eight community-based organizations and municipalities to support redevelopment initiatives. The initiatives involve 31 affordable homes, including 22 affordable homeownership opportunities.

The projects that received the awards are in Carver, Fitchburg, Holyoke, Lawrence, Springfield and Worcester. These are the first grants awarded through NSP, a $50M program that addresses blight, abandonment and disinvestment in residential neighborhoods. The program was authorized as part of Gov. Charlie Baker’s $626M economic development bill signed last year.

EXECS

Procopio Cos. hired Shad Brook as director of operational excellence. Brook will be in charge of standardizing procedures for Procopio’s construction operations and will manage overall performance of the company as it moves forward with expansion into new markets like Raleigh, North Carolina. It has existing projects in Lynn, Beverly, Wilmington, Winthrop and Gloucester. Brook has 15 years of experience in quality of operations and quality assurance at companies like Suffolk Construction and Raytheon Technologies. 

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EBI Consulting promoted Tammy Ribaudo to the role of chief marketing officer. Ribaudo joined the firm in 2021 as vice president of marketing. Prior to joining EBI, Ribaudo had 30 years of experience, including as vice president of marketing at Deloitte and senior director at ITSMA.

THIS AND THAT

Breakthrough Properties, backed by a joint venture between Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, began construction on the redevelopment of One Canal, a four-story lab and office building in Cambridge. Breakthrough acquired the property in 2021, and the redevelopment will add 105K SF of research and development space. The building will feature a ground-floor lounge, private outdoor space, a fitness center and on-site retail space.

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Transom Real Estate and Harbor Run Development filed a letter of intent with the Boston Planning & Development Agency to build two residential buildings in the Fenway, Bisnow reported last week. The plans call for two seven-story buildings totaling 111 apartments. The development would rise on the same property as the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church on Park Drive. In a partnership with the developers, the church will continue to operate and will receive help for repairs and landscaping improvements.