This Week's Boston Deal Sheet
Two nonprofit affordable housing groups are set to buy Our Lady's Guild House, an affordable residential property for women in the Fenway neighborhood, following the settlement of a housing discrimination investigation against the current landlords.
The Planning Office of Urban Affairs and the Fenway Community Development Corp. signed an option agreement to buy the property at 20 Charlesgate West to preserve the affordability of its 140 units.
“Fenway CDC has a long history of advocating for and working with Fenway residents to create affordable housing," Leah Camhi, executive director of the Fenway CDC, said in a statement. "We look forward to working with the City of Boston, the Commonwealth and mission-aligned quasi-public entities, banks, and investors to make this project a reality."
The move comes after the owners of the complex, the Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception, settled a housing discrimination investigation and agreed to pay $115K as well as provide protections against evictions and rent increases while the sale of the building is still tentative, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced last week.
For the past 15 years, residents have complained that management company Marc Roos Realty began raising rents to push out elderly tenants and replace them with younger tenants who could pay higher rents, the Boston Globe reported.
LEASES
Manufacturing company Via Separations leased almost half of the 105K SF at Berkley Investments' lab project in Watertown. The company leased 51K SF at 64 Pleasant St. after it announced a $38M investment led by NGP ETP and other equity investors.
64 Pleasant St. sits near the Charles River. Berkeley converted the 160-year-old mill building into a Class-A lab and R&D building. Via was represented by Cushman & Wakefield’s David Thomann and Connor Barnes. Newmark’s Dave Townsend, Juliette Reiter, Catie Tilton and Dan Krysiak represented Berkeley.
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Stocking distributor Source N.A. leased 18K SF at 24 Bodwell St. in Avon, the Boston Real Estate Times reported. The 39K SF industrial building, which sits on 6.36 acres, is fully occupied following Source N.A.’s lease. R.W. Holmes' Robert Strelke represented the tenant and the landlord, Atlantic Management, in the deal.
FINANCING
MassDevelopment and Reading Cooperative Bank issued a $3M tax-exempt bond to Soliyarn Inc. to acquire and renovate an 18K SF industrial building in Lynn. The building at 23 Farrar St. was built in 1940 and was once the home of Sterling Machine Co. but has been vacant for the past two years. Soliyarn, a manufacturing company based in the North End and Charlestown, expects that the move will create 84 full-time and 10 part-time jobs over the next three years.
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The Mission Main Tenant Task Force reached a deal to become the majority owner of the 535-unit, 15-acre Mission Main public housing property near Roxbury Crossing. The group executed several financing deals with public and private entities for a $66M, 31-month renovation project of the apartment community.
The renovation project will include updates to the apartment complex’s heating and cooling systems; kitchen, bathroom, appliances and window replacement in all of the apartments; 10 new playgrounds; and handicap accessibility to 29 apartments. The complex consists of 32 walk-up townhomes, one seven-story mid-rise building and one two-story community building.
CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Hebrew SeniorLife plans to construct a new seven-story, 54-unit senior affordable housing complex in Brookline. The senior housing developer, advised by Nixon Peabody LLP, plans to expand its Brookline housing campus, which includes three other developments in the town.
Financing for the project was provided by Eastern Bank, the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund Board, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, the town of Brookline and Rogerson Communities Inc. The developer also received an equity investment from RBC Community Investments LLC.
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KS Partners proposed a new lab redevelopment project at a former Lesley University office building, the Boston Business Journal reported. The developer bought the 23K SF building in September for $12M from the university, which was selling part of its portfolio to pay for campus improvements. KS hasn't filed a special permit for the redevelopment but has scheduled a meeting with residents to discuss the proposal.
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Sasaki showcased its designs for its new Boston headquarters. The global design firm is the primary tenant at the eight-story 110 Chauncy Building, which will house more than 250 employees and the Sasaki Foundation on the top seven floors. With the new design, the firm is also completing its 16-year lease agreement with the landlord, MC Real Estate Partners. The redesign includes modernizing the lobby, retail space and the entrance of the building. The firm is moving out of its old suburban headquarters in Watertown, where it resided for decades.
