Jason Ward
Title: Principal of New Business and
Acquisitions, FoxRock Properties
Age: 43
Experience: 20 years
2013 was a busy year for Jason Ward at FoxRock Properties in Quincy. FoxRock signed eight new tenants and completed three major development projects, including the 85,000-square-foot South Shore Medical Center campus in Norwell. Founded in 2007, FoxRock now owns 1.2 million square feet of commercial space in southeastern Massachusetts. An avid runner, Ward is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and received his master’s degree from Harvard University.
Q: Do you expect the demand for medical space to continue south of Boston?
A: We talk about that every day, and the short answer is we don’t know. We recognize we’re highly ignorant players who hate risk, but would love to be able to anticipate opportunity. There is certainly an opportunity for more consolidation in the medical field on the South Shore, and a lot of that is dependent on the proposed merger with (Partners HealthCare and South Shore Hospital). Even if that deal does not go through, there’s a lot of opportunities. There’s a continued demand from medical tenants who are trying to consolidate operations and medical tenants who are in functionally obsolete space and have no choice but to upgrade facilities.
Q: What do you foresee for the future of the big blocks of vacant office space in North Quincy at the former State Street Corp. campus?
A: Obviously we believe in North Quincy. One of our principals, Rob Hale, CEO of Granite Telecommunications, has made big bets in North Quincy. We are bullish on a lot of the elements that North Quincy provides, including the Red Line and access to and from the city. We talk about it all the time. Where is the demand going to come from? That’s the big question. With all the vacancy that exists there, there’s really not enough demand in the South Shore/Route 3 corridor to fill all the vacant space. The demand has to come from Boston.
Q: So far all of FoxRock’s activity has been south of Boston. Are you looking at other geographic markets?
A: We believe in this market. We want to be here for the long term, but we also want to grow our company and our asset base and we’re looking for opportunities throughout the Greater Boston area. We’re just looking to be opportunistic, particularly with value-add deals.
Q: Is FoxRock’s strategy to buy and hold the properties it acquires?
A: We haven’t sold one yet, and that is our philosophical approach. We are here for the long term and we’re trying to build a portfolio, so every deal we do with a long-term horizon. We think in terms of decades.
Q: What drove the busy pace of development for FoxRock in 2013?
A: Tenants were confronting big-picture projects that would require large-scale facilities changes. It doesn’t do you any good if you buy (a property) at the right price and there aren’t users looking to make a massive organization change. We found the puzzle pieces in terms of the relationships.
Top Five Running Routes in Massachusetts:
- World’s End, Hingham
- Norris Reservation, Norwell
- Ellisville Harbor State Park, Plymouth
- Accord Pond, Norwell
- Wompatuck State Park, Hingham
