This Week’s Boston Deal Sheet
The Hamilton Corp founder and CEO Harold Brown is known for the $1.7B in multifamily properties he privately owns, but he also established a $50M/year construction firm that just completed building a modern radiology facility in a historic building for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Hamilton Construction Management designed, engineered and built a state-of-the-art outpatient radiology suite that held a grand opening last week in the 100-year-old building at 1101 Beacon St in Brookline. One challenge was to install the high-tech medical facility while the imaging center and healthcare facilities that fill the rest of the building continued to operate.
Harold’s real estate firm owns the property, but Hamilton Construction won the assignment during a six-month competitive bid process run by BIDMC and its consultant, the Peregrine Gp, says Stephen Weinig, president of Hamilton Construction Management. (With him are: Samara Tilkin, architect; Annamarie Monks, chief administrative officer of BIDMC's Department of Radiology; and Dr. Tejas Metah, Director of Breast Imagery at BIDMC). All-new HVAC and electrical distribution systems were installed; plumbing and life safety upgraded; the space reconfigured; and new finishes, mill work, lighting and furniture placed, Stephen tells us.
Construction & Development
A $10M overhaul has started at the 1911 JP branch of the Boston Public Library at 12 Sedgwick St. The project gives the library 20% more space, including a 700 SF addition facing South Street, a terrace where residents can read and mingle, multiple meeting spaces plus new computers, WiFi and a refreshed collection of 30,000 books. The designer is Utile Inc. Architecture & Planning, the GC is Colantonio.
The first affordable housing project to be built in Cambridge this year—the 20-unit, $9M Port Landing—just broke ground. The developer is Capstone Communities and Hope Real Estate Enterprises.
***
John Hancock is advancing its plan to build a 26-story, 625k SF tower at 380 Stuart St in Back Bay by filing an expanded project notification form with the city. The development team includes: Skidmore Owings & Merrill with CBT Architects, Colliers International, Goulston & Storrs, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin and Nitsch Engineering.
Leasing
Seventh Sense Biosystems (7SBio) will move from Cambridge’s Kendall Square into 9k SF at Cummings Properties’ 200 Boston Ave in Medford this month. Cummings’ Derek Cook repped the landlord, and Cushman & Wakefield’s Mark Winters repped 7SBio in signing up for the clean room, lab and office space.
***
KLR, a top 100 accounting and consulting firm, is moving into 12k SF at 99 Summer St downtown. In the relo from spaces in Cambridge and elsewhere in Boston, the tenant was repped by CBRE. The firm also has offices in Waltham, Providence and Newport, RI, and in Shanghai.
***
EMD Serono, a biopharmaceutical unit of Merck, renewed its 202k SF HQ lease at One Technology Place in Rockland, repped by Savills Studley’s Mark Stewart and Steve Woodworth. Perry Brokerage’s Rich Beal repped the landlord, AW Perry.
Sales
Calare Properties paid Campanelli $25.4M for a three-building industrial portfolio in the Campanelli Business Park in Middleborough: 16 Leona Dr (above), 19 Leona Dr and 139 Campanelli Dr.
***
Baystone Development paid $4.5M to acquire 145-147 and 526-546 Revere Beach Blvd with a plan to build a 234-unit apartment complex on the two-acre site overlooking the ocean. Other developers have tried but failed to spark a project at this location in the beachfront community just a few miles from downtown Boston.
People
Mayor Walsh appointed Patricia Lyons as director of the city’s Public Facilities Department, the design and construction project management agency for municipal buildings like libraries, community centers, and fire and police stations. Patricia, a 29-year city employee, has held senior management roles in the department she will now lead.
***
Taran Grigsby has joined Boston Realty Advisors as general counsel. He comes from the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, where he was managing director and general counsel and early on was an attorney at Goulston & Storrs.
Honors
Finalists for NH&RA’s 2015 J. Timothy Anderson Awards for Historic Rehabilitation include:
Cottage Square Apartments in Lowell for Best Large Historic Rehab Using Low Income Housing Tax Credits by Arch Street Development, Kuhn Riddle Architects and MacRostie Historic Advisors,
The team of the WinnCompanies, The Architectural Team and Epsilon Associates for Counting House Lofts in Lowell as Best Market Rate or Mixed Income Residential and Voke Lofts in Worcester.
