A largely vacant Downtown Boston building from the failed Anglo Irish Bank portfolio of commercial real estate is under agreement to sell for $21.4 million, real estate sources have confirmed.
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, formerly RREEF Real Estate, has agreed to buy the nine-story, 70,000-square-foot office building at 45 Milk St. for about $21.2 million, or more than $300 per square-foot, industry executives told Banker & Tradesman. Anglo Irish paid nearly $34 million for the asset in 2007, just before the financial markets came crashing down.
That is "pretty remarkable" pricing, considering the Financial District building is just 10 percent occupied, according to one real estate executive that asked for anonymity.
The property was acquired by Anglo Irish’s private banking arm for $33.9 million, nearly $490 per square-foot, in 2007, just before the financial services walls came crumbling down in the Great Recession.
The office building, known as the International Trust Co. Building, was built in 1893. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and given landmark status by the Boston Landmarks Commission. That means the commission must review and approve any changes to the exterior.
The 45 Milk building was designed by William Preston, the architect behind MIT’s former Rogers Building that stood on Boylston Street between Clarendon and Berkeley streets in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood from 1866 to 1938. New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. purchased the building in 1937 and razed it to make way for the insurance company’s offices.
