This Week's Boston Deals
King Street Properties will break ground tomorrow on the first ground-up spec lab to be built in the suburbs at 115 Hartwell Ave in Lexington. The addition to The Hartwell Innovation Campus (THINC) signals the maturing suburban market for life science facilities, says founder and principal Tom Ragno (right, with partner Stephen Lynch).
The new $45.5M, 91k SF lab building will be a “Cambridge quality” mid-rise compared to the low-rise buildings that King Street previously developed in this historic suburb. Construction will be completed late in 2016 on the LEED certifiable, Class-A lab, the fourth building at THINC. JLL is the leasing agent.
Construction & Development
At Boston Landing in Allston, NB Development Group topped off the Warrior Ice Arena at 80 Guest St, the new Bruins practice facility, and a 10-story office building. Earlier this year, the development team—NB and HYM Investment Group—completed New Balance Athletics’ new 250k SF HQ. NB Development Group is a sister company to New Balance Athletics; both are owned by Jim and Anne Davis. The 15-acre development has been tagged as a $500M project but NB has declined to give an estimated total development cost.
***
With construction completed in the Seaport, PricewaterhouseCoopers moved its 3,000-person Boston staff into a new 10-story location built for it by Skanska. The top-tier firm left its old HQ in the Financial District at 125 High St.
***
Developer DJ Properties—David Pogorelc, Jan Steenbrugge and Tim Mackie—plans to build a nearly 900k SF mixed-use village on a five-acre site near Andrew Square in South Boston designed by Cambridge-based Prellwitz Chilinski Associates and Halvorson Design Partnership. It will have: 656 residential units, 99k SF of retail, 560 parking spaces, 43k SF of open space and new streets, pedestrian paths, plazas and landscaped open spaces.
***
Construction is completed on Nexamp's 2.3-megawatt community solar project on 12 acres in Hancock to supply Jiminy Peak ski resort and its neighbors with solar power. The solar panels, combined with Jiminy Peak's wind turbine and conservation efforts, will help the ski resort cut its energy usage by 90%. This marks Nexamp’s expansion beyond commercial and industrial solar customers into the community solar market.
St. Mark’s School in Southborough recently completed a 30k SF integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Center designed by ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge and managed by Consigli Construction. Its space includes a fabrication lab, robotics program and several teaming spaces of varying size.
Sale
NewTower Trust—an investment manager of Multi-Employer Property Trust—paid $160.25M to Berkeley Investments for two parking garages and an office building in Fort Point. Earlier this year, MEPT made $250M in downtown purchases around Fort Point Channel.
Leasing
Indian tech firm Wipro leased 9,352 SF at 1900 Crown Colony in Quincy from landlord Jumbo Capital Management. Colliers’ Jim Elcock, David Goodhue, Caleb Hudak and Dan Hines worked with Jumbo’s Jordan Berns and Jay Hirsh on the deal.
Nuance Communications, one of the state’s largest software companies, renewed its 200k SF lease at 1 Wayside Dr in Burlington for its East Coast HQ. Transwestern | RBJ’s Jon Varholak, John Lashar and Brian McKenzie repped landlord RT Burlington, an affiliate of Chambers Street Properties, in the 12-year renewal. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank repped Nuance.
Canvys, a division of Richardson Electronics, renewed the lease on its 41k SF at 753 Forest St in Marlborough owned by Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management. Colliers’ Kevin Brawley and Stephen Woelfel Jr. repped the tenant.
People
Mark Bush is the new SVP asset management at The Davis Cos, after stints at AEW Capital Management and Brixmor Property Group. He’ll be key in repositioning TDC’s newly acquired office property at 1025 and 1075 Main St in Waltham, and One Burlington Business Center, adjacent to Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington.
