The Deal Sheet
Kimco is expanding its Boston footprint in a big way with its $270M purchase of a 24-property, 1.4M SF retail portfolio that includes 21 Massachusetts retail centers, the Trader Joe's/Micro Center on Memorial Drive among them. (If they're expanding their footprint, they'll need new shoes. Hope one of those retail centers has a shoe store.)
The seller, GPB Holdings, acquired the centers from Stop & Shop in ’96 for $96.6M, says HFF’s Jim Koury who orchestrated both sales. The latest transaction includes Kimco’s assumption of $121M in debt. The portfolio, which is 4% vacant, drew a premium price because it’s rare that a Boston shopping center portfolio comes to market; usually it’s one center at a time. (Think of it like bowling, would you rather get a strike or one pin at a time? Or do what we do and gutter every ball?) Add to that the availability of low interest rates and plentiful equity capital, all of which aided Jim in generating a price that helped the seller realize an approximately 17% average annual growth rate in portfolio value over its 18-year ownership.
21 of the properties are in Massachusetts, mostly in Boston’s inner suburbs—Cambridge, Brighton and elsewhere—two are in New Jersey, and one is in Connecticut, says Jim (above with colleague Whitney Gallivan). National retail investors want a percentage of holdings in Boston because it’s a stable slow growth market, he tells us. National and regional credit tenants in the portfolio include: Walmart, Kohl’s, Lowe’s, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Petco, Pier 1 Imports, Walgreens, and CVS as well as Kings and Aldi supermarkets. Kimco, based in New York, has a Newton office.
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Mack-Cali Realty paid $37.7M to AEW and John M. Corcoran for Andover Place at 650 Bulfinch Dr in the town of the same name. The 220-unit multifamily property on 30 acres is 94% leased and includes a clubhouse, pool, and sundeck. JLL’s Travis D'Amato and Mike Coyne repped the seller and found the buyer.
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Frank Van Trig and Jan Jaap Boering paid $13.25 M for the soon-to-be-former Pucker Gallery at 171 Newbury St from the family of Suzanna and Barnard Pucker, the longtime owners. Boston Realty Advisors repped the seller, S&B Realty Trust.
Construction & Development
Boston Properties plans to start construction this summer on the $200M 888 Boylston St, president Doug Linde said in a call with analysts. After nearly two decades, leases from Natixis and Bloomingdale's make it feasible to build out the last development site in the 22-acre Prudential Center, Bisnow wrote in January. Bloomingdale's lease is so valuable, it will “underwrite and unlock” the Natixis space, one source says. Prior to the recession, it won city approval for a 440k SF, 17-story tower at 888. The 100k SF-plus office lease with Natixis Global Asset Management alone might not have done the trick, but combined with Bloomies, the Back Bay’s on track to get its first new office building in many years.
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The HYM Investment Group is the new co-development manager for the $500M, 1.4M SF Boston Landing being built by New Balance in Brighton. HYM and prez Tom O’Brien are also developing the 2.3M SF Government Center Garage complex downtown and the 5.3M SF mixed-use project at NorthPoint in East Cambridge. Boston Landing is planned to have three office buildings, a 175-room hotel, a multi-use sports complex, ground-floor restaurants, and retail along Guest Street.
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Centerboard, a Lynn-based nonprofit that provides community-service programs, is purchasing and will renovate its HQ at 16 City Hall Square with the help of a $1.1M loan from MassDevelopment.
Financing
Corcoran & Co recapitalized Parkside Commons, a 228-multifamily building in Chelsea, by taking on a new partner, a domestic institutional investor. 10% of the apartments must be kept affordable. CBRE/New England’s Simon Butler, and Biria St. John repped the owners.
Leasing
The Fallon Co’s Fan Pier complex signed leases for 21k SF with Starbucks, Bright Horizons and George Aboujaoude of Boston’s Cafeteria and Bijou Nightclub that will launch a new, original restaurant concept. CBRE\NE repped Fallon.
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Carlisle Capital has signed up six new tenants taking 70k SF for Carlisle Commerce Center at 220-240 Ballardvale St in Wilmington. New to the four-building, 256k SF campus: Dynamex took 18k SF repped by Colliers’ Tim Brodigan; EcoLab, 18k SF; Millwork took 8,000 SF; Piece Management, 9,000 SF; Dish Network, 9,000k SF; and Applied Industrial Technologies, 9,000 SF. NAI Hunneman’s Michael McCarthy and Jason Rexinis led the leasing effort with Steve James, Jim Boudrot, Evan Gallaher, and Brendan Daly.
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Campanelli signed two new leases at Heritage Landing in Quincy. Straub Collaborative, a photographer, leased 9,337 SF and lender Mortgage One Solutions took 3,352 SF. The landlord’s Peter Brown worked with Cushman & Wakefield’s Mike Frisoli, Matt Morgan, Dave Martel and Jason Roth.
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Asics and Vince have leased a total of 8,500 SF from landlord Jamestown at 328 Newbury St and 71 Newbury St, respectively. Jamestown has invested nearly $5M to upgrade its properties on the famed retail boulevard since purchasing its 219k SF Back Bay portfolio, called the Newbury Collection, for $226M.
Over the Hump
The Boston office market has crossed the Rubicon with a vacancy rate of 9.99% (some people might call that 10%), according to a recent report from Cushman & Wakefield. Traditionally, a vacancy rate under 10% connotes the shift from a tenant to landlord market.
People
Marcus & Millichap’s Institutional Property Advisors has acquired the former New England team of Apartment Realty Advisors’ investment sales team of Richard Robinson (not pictured), and James Chang, Philip Lamere, Kaitlyn Fox, Jennifer Athas (above) and support staff.
Community
If you noticed that the Pru Tower was fuchsia, gold, and blue last night, don’t worry; no one spiked your cappuccino. Boston Properties lit up the famed tower to broadcast that it’s the time of year when the commercial real estate community hosts a major fund raiser for Heading Home. The aim: end homelessness in Boston. If you’re unable to attend please consider making a donation or inquire about getting involved at: www.headinghomeinc.org. And look for event coverage in Thursday's Bisnow.
