This Week's Boston Deal Sheet
With extra points for perseverance, Patrick Lyons will officially open his 30k SF Kings Bowl in Burlington this weekend after a fire last April burned down the initial building two weeks before it was set to open.
The entertainment complex brings a distinctive offering to Norblom’s 3rd Ave retail/restaurant development, a kingpin of the owner's $1B remake of its Northwest Park. Burlington, long a standout suburban office market, is refashioning its image as a fun alternative to Boston and Cambridge. Kings Bowl has: 20 ten-pin bowling lanes; billiards; shuffleboard; pro dart boards; a 42-seat theater; two chef-driven restaurants; two bars; and a supersize sound system.
Construction & Development
Spear Street Capital is doing a major renovation of its 200k SF Riverworks in Watertown. With CBT Architects, it has designed an overhaul that mixes the three-building mill complex’s historic character and a contemporary feel to create an integrated office campus with upgraded common areas, including the courtyard, lobby and café, and signage.
EDENS will expand its South Bay Center in Dorchester where in the '90s one of the first new supermarkets was built in Boston after the mid-century exodus to the ‘burbs. On 10 adjacent acres, Edens’ new transit-oriented, mixed-use commercial and residential development will include: 115k SF of commercial and retail space; a 65k SF cinema; a 150- to 200-room hotel; up to 500 units of multifamily housing; and two parking garages.
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171 Tremont is planning to replace the existing 18k SF office building it purchased from Millennium Partners with 31 luxury condos facing the Common, on the corner of Tremont and Avery streets. The developer, Maurice Dabbah, is in a JV partnership with Center Court Boston principals Matthew Snyder and David Ridini.
Sales
Axcelis Technologies, a company that designs and manufactures equipment for semiconductor manufacturers, sold its 37-acre Beverly HQ to Middleton Partners for $49M in a leaseback agreement. DZT’s Ed Wlodarczyk and James Halepis repped the seller. Axcelis is leasing the 417k SF property at 108 Cherry Hill Dr on a long-term, triple-net lease.
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Nova Biomedical closed on its purchase of 165 Lexington Rd—an 80k SF office, flex and manufacturing building—in Billerica from KS Partners for an undisclosed price. Nova, which develops, manufactures and sells blood-testing analyzers, owns another building in Billerica, and has manufacturing facilities in Waltham and Taipei in Taiwan. Avison Young repped the buyer.
Bierbrier Development, which develops and runs urban shopping centers, paid $41.5M to Carpenter & Co for South Shore Place in Braintree. Tenants at the fully leased center include: Legal Sea Foods, Starbucks, AT&T, Jos. A. Bank and TGI Friday. HFF’s Ben Sayles and Coleman Benedict repped Bierbrier.
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Fenwick Capital paid $3.7M to Legacy Real Estate Ventures for the renovated 1888 building at 63 Pleasant St in Watertown. Legacy usually holds for the long term but let go of the 23k SF property in the face of strong demand and attractive pricing.
Leasing
Silicon Valley’s allure couldn't compare to the draw of Boston for Israeli-based software firm Harmon (did anyone tell them about the weather?), which has taken space at 31 Milk St downtown. Harmon develops cloud-based mobile apps for businesses and its CEO, Yaacov Cohen, says he likes Boston’s no-nonsense approach to balance sheets.
Assignments
Columbia Property Trust has tapped DTZ to lease its recently acquired 116 Huntington Ave in Back Bay. DTZ’s Glenn Verrette and John McHugh are on the job for the publicly traded office REIT.
People
Real estate finance specialist Michael Buckley has joined Avison Young as a senior vice president in the Boston office. He’s coming from New Boston Fund, where he raised at least $3B in debt capital for acquisitions and construction for all major property types. At Avison, he’ll raise capital and provide financial advisory services to the firm's clients nationwide. Buckley got an MBA at Duke and BS from the UMAss Amherst College of Engineering.
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Mark Pelletier is now the senior director of architecture at Maugel Architects in Harvard. He comes with nearly 20 years of experience at Margulies Perruzzi Architects and CDM Smith. He’s worked with Fortune 100 clients such as Covidien, Millipore, IBM and Blue Cross Blue Shield and specializes in the design of cleanrooms, bio-process manufacturing facilities and labs.
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SIOR New England’s new top dogs for this year and next include: president Donald Mancini, a principal at Kelleher & Sadowsky; vice president Tim Brodigan, a VP at Colliers; VP Mike Giuttari, president of MG Commercial Real Estate; and treasurer Katherine Williams Kane, president of Williams ReloLogic and Maestro Consulting.
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Integrated Builders added Chris Ruta as a project manager to oversee all phases of construction projects: estimates, budgets and timetables; collaboration among architects, engineers and specialists; and ensuring that construction complies with building codes and regulatory requirements.
