The Deal Sheet
Recently announced refis—nearly $51M for the Linear Retail portfolio and $25M for 250 Summer St—illustrate the widening range of lenders eager to accommodate borrowers as existing loans come due, says HFF senior managing director Riaz Cassum. (Lenders and borrowers are the hot tabloid couple this year.)
Lenders like the German insurer Alianz and Boston-based People’s Bank have something important in common: They can both tap into the copious amount of capital now available for loans on existing assets. And, there’s a wide variety of lender institutions, from local banks to money centers, CMBS, life companies, new mortgage REITs, and debt funds. Even landlords whose properties aren't stabilized can find willing lenders. (It's like a Renaissance Faire: there's something for everyone.) The borrowing cost will appropriately reflect the risk the lender is willing to take, Riaz tells us.
Allianz Real Estate of America provided Linear Retail Properties a nearly $51M refi for a six-property, 224k SF New England portfolio that’s 97% leased. Loan proceeds will be used to pay off the debt on Linear’s 1.4M SF portfolio valued at close to $500M last September. Synergy Investments and Independencia Asset Management secured nearly $25M for 250 Summer St, a 105k SF office building in the Seaport.
LEASING
Moderna Therapeutics is doubling its space in Cambridge to 100k SF of office and labs by leasing an additional 50k SF at 320 Bent St in Kendall Square. This will become its new HQ. The life science company will keep its former HQ space at 200 Technology Square in Cambridge for R&D and GMP manufacturing.
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On Monday, MassChallenge, the startup business accelerator located at ONE Marina Park Dr on Fan Pier for five years, will relo into the Innovation and Design Building at the Marine Industrial Park on Monday. 128 teams of entrepreneurs—the MassChallenge class of 2014—will occupy the sixth floor of the 21 Drydock building.
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Walden Behavioral Care agreed to lease 6,663 SF from Combined Properties at Two Corporation Way, Centennial Park in Peabody. Cresa Boston’s Matt Harvey and Joseph Doyle repped the tenants and Greg Regazzini repped the landlord.
SALES
Partnering Core and Value Advisors, based in Stockbridge, purchased Metro at Wilmington Station, a 108-unit, Class-A, transit-oriented apartment community located in Wilmington from EA Fish Development and Real Estate Capital Partners. Repping the seller: CBRE’s Simon Butler and Biria St. John. The price wasn’t disclosed.
CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Cutting the ribbon on Pfizer’s new 280k SF R&D center at 610 Main St in Cambridge were Gov. Deval Patrick (center) with the company’s prez for worldwide research Mikael Dolsten to his right. In the lab that the drug maker is leasing from MIT, scientists will work on several therapeutic areas. Pfizer also occupies a manufacturing site in Andover and its global HQ for Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation in Boston.
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Tufts University School of Medicine’s long-sought Arnold 8 Biosafety Laboratory is slated to open this month at its Chinatown campus downtown in the medical research building at 136 Harrison Ave. Shawmut Design & Construction is building the 1,700 SF laboratory, in the planning process for at least four years, that will focus on new ways to detect, prevent and treat tuberculosis.
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Three tenants have been expanding by 4,000 SF each at Boston Properties’ 91 Hartwell Ave in Lexington: exisitng tenants Leidos and Quantech Services, and new tenant Sideris Pharmaceuticals. Vantage Builders, based in Waltham, did the construction, mainly systems and finish work. Wilson Architectural Services did the design work for Leidos and Sideris, and Colin Smith Architecture for Quantech.
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Jenike & Johanson, a specialist in powder and bulk solids storage, is expanding by 14k SF, at 400 Business Park Dr in Tyngsboro. This boosts its space by 75% and allows the company to double its engineering, advanced modelling and simulation staff. Senate Construction is doing the construction.
KUDOS
To those who think that the park in Post Office Square is a wonderful green oasis in the heart of downtown, you’re not alone. The American Planning Association named the 1.7-acre Norman B. Leventhal Park as one of the Great Places in America. It was created in ’92 by a business group that re-built an unsightly parking garage underground.
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The Boston Transportation Department has installed four parklets at 27 Corinth St in Roslindale, 174 Harvard Ave in Allston, 736 Commonwealth Ave in Brighton, and Hyde Square/Centre Street in JP for the summer. Another parklet in Audubon Circle is being designed, built, and will be maintained through the Parkolation Project, an educational program involving students from the Boston Green Academy.
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Rebuilding Together, a national nonprofit, and its local Boston affiliate teamed up with Lowe’s and Carter’s Kids to do critical repairs and renovations on two homes in Dorchester . Above are some of the 80-plus folks who volunteered last week.
