Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Senior Director J.P. Plunkett describes Boston Business Park as “a sleeping giant.”
In some respects, Stop & Shop’s former distribution center in Boston could be considered the Mount Saint Helens of the area’s industrial market. Used by the grocery chain for decades until the operation’s relocation to Freetown, 100 Meadow Road recently burst on the scene as Boston Business Park, altering the leasing landscape overnight with 765,000 square feet of existing space and more than 300,000 square feet of build-to-suit opportunities.
“It has always been a sleeping giant,” acknowledged Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Senior Director J.P. Plunkett, leasing agent for the 72-acre complex along with colleague Catherine A. Minnerly. The industry veterans were retained by Saxe Investments and Commonfund Realty, the partnership that acquired the asset in 2003 for $27 million. While older industrial facilities often have drawbacks such as low ceilings or insufficient power to meet modern demands, 100 Meadow Road competes well in the new millennium, according to the brokers and others familiar with the property.
“It’s a real pearl,” Campanelli Cos. President Daniel R. DeMarco said last week. “There’s no question it is going to draw interest.”
Until recently, Braintree-based Campanelli had been serving as property manager for Boston Business Park, but became so bullish on the prospects that it has now signed on as a partner. Besides a past relationship with Saxe principal William Steinberg and an ownership stake with Commonfund in a Norwood property, Campanelli’s acumen as one of the state’s leading industrial developers “adds a lot of firepower” to the project, Plunkett said.
“We’re extremely excited about it,” he said of Campanelli’s participation, citing the firm’s demonstrated ability to tackle super-sized real estate challenges and its track record of 13 million square feet of commercial real estate developed throughout the Bay State. Major undertakings include Campanelli’s Middleborough business park that features more than 1 million square feet, two warehouse properties at Devens Industrial Park totaling 735,000 square feet that just sold for $45 million, and renovation of a former Boston Edison facility in Watertown into 450,000 square feet of high-technology and industrial space. The firm’s prominence was recognized recently when Campanelli was named Developer of the Year by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Located mostly in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood and partly in Dedham, the Stop & Shop facility is a rare find, according to DeMarco. Only a handful of similar properties in the state offer direct rail access, he said, maintaining that none possess as prime a location as Boston Business Park, which is close to downtown Boston and a four-minute drive west to Route 128. Only the private stewardship of Stop & Shop kept the site from being chopped up for other uses, noted DeMarco, providing a unique footprint for the market.
Subdividable to 50,000 square feet, the two primary buildings at Boston Business Park can accommodate firms needing 100,000 square feet or more, said Minnerly, who explained that the original developers were well ahead of their peers in planning the properties. Featuring intricate sprinkler systems, tailboard loading docks and advanced mechanical systems throughout the physical plant, the largest building has 433,000 square feet and clear-height ceilings of 32 feet. The next largest has 200,000 square feet and ceilings up to 25 feet.
The sheer heft of Boston Business Park shifted industrial vacancy rates when it was first recorded in market surveys, particularly for communities on the southern side of the Hub. And while the industrial market has been somewhat sluggish of late in its own right, Minnerly and Plunkett joined DeMarco in reporting encouraging interest in the Hyde Park complex. “We’re happy with the activity,” said Minnerly. “We feel like we’re going to be penciling out some deals fairly soon.”
‘A Great Team’
The Boston Business Park is the largest listing to date for Cushman & Wakefield’s brokerage duo, who have jointly covered the South region since Minnerly came to the firm from NAI Hunneman Commercial Co. in 2002. According to Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Senior Managing Director Thomas L. Collins, the assignment was precisely what his firm had anticipated when it united the pair, with Minnerly and Plunkett beating out several experienced competitors to win the listing.
“I think our client thought that they make a great team, and we obviously agree,” said Collins. “They cover each other and work very well together.”
According to Collins, the addition of Minnerly complemented Plunkett’s own lengthy coverage of the markets south of Boston. Plunkett, whose multiple brokerage credits include a 175,000-square-foot lease in Canton and the $16.3 million sale of 300 Crown Colony Drive in Quincy, has a deep understanding of that submarket’s office sector, said Collins, while Minnerly arrived with more than a dozen years of experience as a leading industrial broker. “Bringing Cathy on has given us a tremendous footing in the industrial part of the business,” said Collins, adding that, “I like our market share and our market coverage” in the south region.
Campanelli is familiar with both Cushman & Wakefield brokers, said DeMarco, whose firm was involved in one 2001 deal where Minnerly leased 485,000 square feet of space on behalf of United Liquors. Minnerly led her former firm in transactions volume that year, producing more than $94 million for Hunneman, and has negotiated six-figure leases for such firms as Chadwick’s, Agar Industries and Perkins Paper. DeMarco said he is confident Cushman & Wakefield will produce results at Boston Business Park despite the dour economic climate.
“They have great reputations, and they are both deal-closers,” said DeMarco. Efforts to contact Steinberg were unsuccessful.
Even with such deep roots in the industrial sector, the owners of Boston Business Park are not single-minded in their strategy for the parcel. The same rail line coveted by industrial tenants also offers commuter rail access that might encourage a residential use on part of the property, according to DeMarco, who also suggested that retail uses might have a future on the site. And while the owners are currently mulling possible options, DeMarco said no concrete proposal has yet to emerge.
Another possibility could be drawing companies with office or research needs, said Plunkett, and the owners have envisioned two commercial buildings that could be added to the park, one of 120,000 square feet and the other with 187,000 square feet. “We’re going to all potential users right now,” said Minnerly. Plunkett and DeMarco also stressed that any redevelopment plan will be brought to the community, with Plunkett praising the Menino administration and the Boston Redevelopment Authority for its willingness to help revitalize the park.
As for the brokerage partnership, Minnerly and Plunkett said they believe it has added a new dimension to their individual capabilities, already yielding benefits after being pitted for years as what Plunkett termed “friendly competitors.” Besides the Boston Business Park listing, Plunkett and Minnerly recently completed more than 200,000 square feet of leasing activity in three suburban Boston deals. After brokering a 20-year, 80,000-square-foot lease at 41 Pacella Park Drive in Randolph for the May Institute, the pair represented HRPT in its lease of 80,000 square feet of warehouse space in Westwood to an electrical distributor. Also recently, Minnerly and Plunkett were the brokers for Park Square Realty in that landlord’s 48,000-square-foot lease to the Robert Allen Group at 225 Foxboro Blvd. in Foxboro. The tenant was represented by Steven E. Clancy and James F. Nicoletti of CBRE/Whittier Partners.
