National Development is considering use options at the former New Balance Athletic Shoe headquarters in Boston’s Allston neighborhood, which is owned by BV Development Corp.
After the departure of one buyer whose proposed apartment project was deemed too large, the former New Balance Athletic Shoe headquarters in Boston’s Allston neighborhood has caught the eye of National Development. Situated at the corner of Everett and North Beacon streets, the four-acre parcel has been on the market since the footwear giant departed to a new facility less than a mile west in 2000.
National Development is “looking at alternatives related to the site,” President Thomas M. Alperin confirmed last week, although he declined to discuss specifics about what the Newton-based firm has in mind for the property and stressed that the negotiations with owner BV Development Corp. are only in a preliminary stage. “We have no specific arrangement at this time,” said Alperin.
The previous suitor, Lincoln Property Co., had envisioned a multi-building residential complex totaling about 300 apartments, but the concept was shot down by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. A combination of community opposition and an overall desire to create a commercial use on the property led to the BRA’s stance, according to Lincoln principal John Noone. “It just couldn’t accommodate the number of units we needed to make it work,” said Noone, adding that his firm saw the tract solely as a residential play.
Despite Lincoln’s single-minded focus, Noone praised the parcel as possessing a superior location and maintained that another entity might consider an alternative or complementary use to housing. “It is a very attractive site with a wide variety of possibilities,” Noone said. “It will be developed by somebody.”
Calls to the BRA and to BV Development official David Brodney were not returned by press deadline, but sources agreed that the owners are aggressively trying to peddle the property, while one said National Development appears to have the edge among potential suitors at present. The Allston neighborhood where the site is located has seen a series of high-profile developments occur in recent years, including a new residential project across the street, a supersized Stop & Shop grocery store developed just behind the New Balance site and a former warehouse that was converted first for telecom use and is now being pitched as a biotech facility by developer Cabot Cabot & Forbes. BV Development also built the current New Balance headquarters in the late 1990s, part of a two-building complex overlooking the Massachusetts Turnpike Extension that has helped establish Allston-Brighton as a viable location for office space.
Opportune Time
If nothing else, the Allston discussions exemplify National’s constant pursuit of real estate opportunities, with the firm’s tentacles seeming to extend throughout Massachusetts. Along with the recent purchase of 274 Franklin St. in Boston, National Development has a luxury apartment complex under way in Worcester and is moving ahead with its ambitious overhaul of the former Lakeville State Hospital in Lakeville into retail, office space and retiree housing. A similar mixed-use development is under way in Medford near Wellington Circle.
One deal the company has taken off its radar screen involved the purchase of 295 and 305 Foster St. in Littleton, a pair of office/flex buildings that were taken back by their lender, Lennar Partners, in 2003. National acknowledged last month that it had an agreement to acquire the buildings, which total 182,000 square feet, but Alperin said the commitment is no longer in place. “We are out of contract,” he said, explaining that a difference of opinion involving due diligence issues led to the decision. Alperin declined to offer specific details, but did offer a glimmer of hope that the deal could be resurrected should some financial concessions be made by Lennar, a Florida-based loan servicing company.
“Whether or not we end up being a buyer on it depends on the price point to address some of the deferred maintenance and other issues associated with the asset,” Alperin said. According to industry sources, National had initially offered between $11 million and $11.5 million for the buildings, which had previously been owned by Berkeley Investments. Berkeley had paid $15.5 million in 1999 for the buildings, which lost its top tenants in the wake of the regional recession that devastated the Interstate 495 office market.
CB Richard Ellis/Whittier Partners principal Gary J. Lemire, whose firm is marketing 295 and 305 Foster St., opted against discussing the dispute with National Development except to concur that the properties are again on the market for sale. “We are talking to a few people,” said Lemire, although he, too, said there is always a possibility National could return to the bargaining table.
National Development has already had a successful year on the investment sales side, with the firm having garnered more than $80 million from the disposition of two Woburn office buildings to a client of Morgan Stanley. Totaling 435,000 square feet, the buildings were developed on behalf of Genuity Inc., but became available when that technology firm was hit by the high-tech bust. National successfully retenanted the buildings with Raytheon Inc. before putting them out for bid, with the firm reaping the rewards of having a strong credit tenant anchoring the properties.
