This Week's Boston Deal Sheet
Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. is in advanced talks to lease a 117K SF department store space on Boylston Street where Lord & Taylor closed in 2020, the Boston Business Journal reports.
The Back Bay building at 760 Boylston St. is owned by Boston Properties. It is located next to the Prudential Center, which the REIT also owns.
The space would house a Dick's Sporting Goods concept that features experiences such as an athletic field and track, a rock wall, workout classes and more, according to BBJ.
The concept, dubbed House of Sport, has three existing locations in Knoxville, Tennessee, Victor, New York, and Minnetonka, Minnesota. If the lease is finalized, the property would become the concept's first location in a major city. Dick's Sporting Goods has 22 overall locations in Massachusetts, including three special concept stores.
SALES
Alloy Properties and Anchor Line Partners paid $275M to Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. for a Route 128 life sciences park. The properties include four buildings in Bedford and four in Lexington, all within a mile of each other. The joint venture also acquired 285 Bear Hill Road in Waltham from Alexandria, and the full portfolio spans 370K SF of fully occupied space.
***
Alexandria Real Estate Equities acquired part of a lab building in Kendall Square for $120M. The life sciences real estate giant bought part of the third floor and the entirety of the fourth floor from French-German energy technology company Schlumberger.
Alexandria has more than 13M SF in the market, including massive projects like One Kendall Square and the Technology Square campus. It also recapitalized two buildings in Kendall Square, 50 and 60 Binney St. for $1.2B in December.
***
Urban Edge Properties acquired The Shops at Riverwood in Hyde Park for $32.9M, it announced last week. The shopping center has 78K SF across six buildings. It is anchored by a Price Right Marketplace grocery store along with a Burger King, Boston Medical Center, Santander and a recently opened Planet Fitness.
***
Atlantic Capital Partners brokered the sale of three grocery-anchored shopping centers in the Greater Boston area, it announced Friday. The portfolio consists of a Stop & Shop property in Abington, a Big Y World Class Market property in Kingston and a Shaw’s Supermarkets property in Orleans. All three centers are 97% leased.
Atlantic Capital Partners' Justin Smith, Chris Peterson, Sam Koonce, Cole Van Gelder and Ben Starr brokered the deal, representing both buyer and seller, which the firm declined to disclose.
***
Bally’s, a Providence-based casino operator, is selling two of its Rhode Island casino properties in a $1B sale-leaseback deal. Bally’s is selling its Twin River Lincoln Casino Resort and its Tiverton Casino & Hotel to Gaming & Leisure Properties.
The casinos each sit within 60 miles of Boston, and they opened in 2007 and 2018. The casino operator also won a bid in May to develop a $1.7B casino and hotel in Chicago.
FINANCING
MassHousing closed on construction financing for the redevelopment of a downtown Springfield project. In partnership with WinnDevelopment and Opal Real Estate Group, the former Court Square Hotel at 31 Elm St. will be redeveloped into 74 units of mixed-income rental homes.
MGM Springfield, MassMutual, the city of Springfield and the state have jointly contributed $48.5M to the construction and permanent financing of the project. The project also received $10.8M in federal and state historic tax credit equity, plus $12.2M from Bank of America for construction, bridge and permanent financing.
THIS AND THAT
Bayer opened its Research and Innovation Center, a 62K SF biotech research facility, in Kendall Square. The company invested $140M into the project, which is two floors and will specialize in oncology innovation. The opening marks the expansion into the Cambridge life sciences market for healthcare product company Baker, which also has a presence in San Francisco, San Diego and North Carolina's Research Triangle.
***
The team behind the Somerville mixed-use project USQ celebrated the topping off of the $2B, 17-acre development, featuring three new towers on Prospect Street. The development team includes Magellan Development, RAS Development LLC, Cypress Equity Investments and USAA Real Estate, and it is partnering with Gilbane Building Co. and Cranshaw Construction.
The three buildings, which began construction in July 2021, sit next to the Green Line's new Union Square extension and are expected to deliver next spring. The 10 Prospect St. property will be a 194K SF lab and innovation building. The 20 and 50 Prospect St. buildings will offer 450 apartment units. The full development is planned to total 2.7M SF.