Portfolio Of 6 Boston-Area Industrial Buildings Sells For $167M
Marcus Partners has sold a Boston-area industrial portfolio for $167M, a rare nine-figure deal in what has become an increasingly slow market.
The firm announced Thursday it sold six warehouse distribution buildings totaling more than 1M SF. It didn't disclose the buyer, but the Boston Business Journal reported it was Westbrook Partners.
The portfolio consists of three buildings in Franklin — 176, 206 and 210 Grove St. — plus buildings at 1 First Ave. in Peabody, at 17 Gilmore Drive in Sutton and 57 Littlefield Ave. in Avon. Marcus developed the 206 Grove St. building and fully leased it to UPS, and it assembled the rest of the portfolio between 2019 and 2021.
CBRE's Chris Skeffington, Scott Dragos and Roy Sandeman represented Marcus Partners in the deal.
“Our firm’s ability to create value through multiple channels — leasing, ground-up development, and renovation of existing assets within the portfolio — resulted in the delivery of a strong return for our investors in the face of a challenging capital markets environment,” Marcus Partners co-Chief Investment Officer Ryan McDonough said in a release.
This deal alone eclipsed the entire Boston area's total volume of industrial property sales in the second quarter, according to JLL. The firm's market report said the Boston area recorded $123M of industrial sales last quarter, tied for the lowest total in the past nine years.
The industrial leasing market has also cooled down after the pandemic-era frenzy. The Boston area recorded negative net absorption of 126K SF through the first six months of this year, according to CBRE's second-quarter report. CBRE also reported that the vacancy rate has increased for four consecutive quarters from less than 1.5% to 3.9%.
Several Boston industrial executives, including McDonough, said at a Bisnow event in February that the region’s warehouse market is better positioned than other parts of the country because it hasn’t experienced the same boom in supply, in part due to local pushback on development.
“We sit in front of these planning boards and these towns, which makes it really difficult and it takes a lot of time,” McDonough said at the event. “When you actually get something permitted, you get real value.”
