This Week's Boston Deal Sheet
A sign that Boston’s development boom is strong enough to radiate out to often-forgotten neighborhoods is the $75M DotBlock: a mixed-use project being developed in Dorchester by Atlas Investments.
Aiming to sell condominiums for $400/SF including parking, Atlas CEO Demetri Dasco tells Bisnow that much new multifamily development is in high-priced high-rises, but his Dorchester Avenue site can support mid-market housing. A big plus: it’s near the coveted Savin Hill Red Line T-stop. DotBlock has all "the elements of success," says BRA spokesman Nick Martin. It’s big, near the T and will transform several underused parcels. There are no public subsidies in the project that Gibson Sotheby will market.
Demetri hopes to start construction this summer with first occupancy in summer 2016. The complex designed by Rode Architects is slated to have 259 residences (rental and for-sale), a 20k SF landscaped roof deck, a parking garage for 400 cars and 40k SF of retail on 3.5 acres, which encompasses nearly an entire city block bounded by Dorchester Avenue, and Greenmount and Hancock streets. Prices of the for sale-housing will average $400k to $430k.
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In a retail play, Equity Office Properties will build an 80k SF retail/office facility in the outdoor courtyard of 500 Boylston St in Back Bay. Also, it plans to convert another 50k SF of the building into retail and add 8,350 SF of retail next door at 222 Berkeley St.
The Bulfinch Cos is developing a $20M, 150-room AC Hotel by Marriott at its Cambridge Discovery Park at Alewife. Construction will start next month for a targeted opening date of June 2016, says Bulfinch president Robert Schlager. Among Discovery Park tenants that may like the opportunity to put up guests: Forrester Research, the Harvard-Smithsonian Institution and Genocea Biosciences.
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Massport’s recent purchase of Seaport District land from the MBTA will help it complete the $35M Thomas Butler Freight Corridor and Memorial Park. The project, already in construction, is due for completion next year. The new route at East First Street and the Reserved Channel will help Massport remove truck traffic from Summer Street while the park will serve as a noise buffer and a community amenity.
Jamestown has completed $13M of interior renovations to the Innovation and Design Building in the marine-industrial part of the waterfront. Among other things, JLL Construction upgraded the common spaces: the main lobby, all corridors, entrances, bathrooms, stairwells, elevators and HVAC in several tenant spaces.
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GTI Properties is trying for the second time to convert the South End Church of the Immaculate Conception on Harrison Avenue into 54 apartments and two townhouse-style buildings with four units.
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Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Forsyth Institute—with a $4.8M grant from the Massachusetts Life Science Center—are building germ-free pre-clinical labs to develop new therapies for hard-to-treat diseases based on microbes that live on the human body.
Sales
An affiliate of Zurich Alternative Asset Management paid GID $37.3M for Windsor Woods at Canton, a 160-apartment Class-A luxury complex in Canton. Cushman & Wakefield President Robert Griffin and Michael Byrne repped the seller of the three-building complex that is 96% occupied. The buyer was repped by Bannon and its own Chris Edgar.
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Lupoli Cos has paid Robert Ansin $38M for a controlling interest in—and historic tax credits for—the Monarch Lofts, a 203-unit apartment complex at the Riverwalk in Lawrence. The value-add is unfinished old mill space where he can build 250 more apartments. Lupoli now has control of the entire 3.6M SF complex.
Leasing
Boston Cares, a nonprofit that coordinates volunteer community service projects, is moving its HQ into 5k SF at 90 Canal St, since it’s outgrown its 2k SF at 190 High St. Avison Young repped Boston Cares in the five-year lease.
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Ginkgo Bioworks is expanding from 11k SF into 18k SF at 27 Drydock Ave in the Seaport District to grow its Foundry Bioworks 1, where the company engineers organisms for the flavor and fragrance markets. MassDevelopment provided $1M in funding.
In a relo, Harmonix, the developer of games like Rock Band and Dance Central, is taking nearly 25k SF at 40 Broad St—now apparently more hip than Harmonix's digs at 625 Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge. NGKF’s Ryan Weber, Jason Cameron and Joe Pearce repped the gamesters; JLL’s Brad McGill, Tom O’Regan and Kelly Lockberg repped the landlord. Harmonix plans to move into the 11-story, 285k SF building in August.
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Borrego Solar Systems, a designer, developer, installer and financier of grid-tied solar photovoltaic systems, has taken nearly 13k SF at 55 Technology Dr in Lowell to relo its Eastern US HQ. JLL’s Brian Tisbert, Chris Lawrence and Mike Ciummei assisted in the move into Novaya Ventures’ building.
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Engineers Geosyntec is expanding into 15k SF at Strawberry Hill Corporate Center—289 Great Rd in Acton—owned by Campanelli. Avison Young’s Jack Kerrigan, Bill Sullivan and Anne Flanagan repped the landlord while its Steve Cook repped Geosyntec.
