The sale of 100 Franklin St., a nine-story, 117,000-square-foot building located in the heart of Boston’s Financial District, was completed last week.
They are hardly shutting down, but Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts is closing big time these days. With the investment sales team still busy pursuing commercial property deals throughout the region, five highly touted properties marketed by the firm officially changed hands last week, including a pair of Woburn buildings which sold for more than $81 million.
Along with that disposition of 225 and 235 Presidential Way, Cushman & Wakefield also closed on 100 Franklin St. in Boston, 270 Billerica Road in Chelmsford, One First St. in Cambridge and 200 Innerbelt Road in Somerville. Total consideration for all of the assets approached $140 million.
“It was a good week,” acknowledged C&W of Massachusetts President Robert E. Griffin Jr. “It was definitely worth showing up for.” The latest results reflect a continuing strong year for C&W’s sales team, with the firm having peddled 24 properties encompassing more than $790 million thus far in 2004. The deals include a range of product types, from office, flex and industrial to multi-family and retail properties, with Boston, Cambridge and the suburbs all represented in the mix.
In Chelmsford, for example, C&W brokered the sale of 270 Billerica Road on behalf of the Davis Cos. to Lexington Corporate Properties Trust, a New York firm which paid $12.1 million for the asset. According to C&W principal Marci Griffith-Loeber, the sale of the 100,000-square-foot building attracted considerable interest among buyers clamoring for strong-credit tenants, with 270 Billerica Road fully leased on a long-term basis to Cadence Design Systems. “Demand for single-tenant, net-leased properties continues to be strong,” said Griffith-Loeber, who worked with Griffin, Jeffrey H. Gates and Christopher T. Griffin on that transaction.
The same fundamentals gave the Woburn assets a slew of suitors as well, said Robert Griffin, with owner National Development successfully leasing the 435,000 square feet in the two properties to Raytheon Inc. prior to putting them up for sale. That gave buyer Morgan Stanley, which purchased the buildings on behalf of an overseas client, the comfort level to pay nearly $190 per square foot for 225 and 235 Presidential Way. “For credit properties and grocery-anchored shopping centers, there’s no problem getting [deals] over the finish line,” said Robert Griffin.
Historic Transactions
Leasing specialist Arthur “Trey” Agnew brought the Herb Chambers Cos. in for the Somerville sale, with the firm paying $8.2 million to acquire the four-story, 190,000-square-foot building. Situated on nearly nine acres, 200 Innerbelt Road features tinted ribbon windows, 16-foot ceiling heights and a strong structural design, while C&W Senior Director Richard Herlihy said the asset’s flexibility was also a drawing card.
Robert and Chris Griffin joined Agnew, Gates and Herlihy in brokering the sale of 200 Innerbelt Road, which is located near Cambridge’s Kendall Square. Efforts to contact Herb Chambers officials to gauge their plans for the building were unsuccessful by press deadline.
In abutting Cambridge, Leggat McCall Properties and ING have already announced their plans for One First St., with the partnership intending to convert the eight-building complex into 199 residential units. The two firms paid $14.4 million for the site, which encompasses 270,000 square feet at the corner of First and Cambridge streets. Robert Griffin, Griffith Loeber and Edward C. Maher Jr. were brokers on that deal, representing the seller, Beacon Capital Partners, and identifying the buyer.
In assessing the site for its residential potential, Griffith Loeber noted One First St.’s proximity to the MBTA Green Line and the hulking CambridgeSide Galleria shopping center. The barriers to entry for new development are leading investors to consider reuse of older structures, added Griffith Loeber, with the One First St. complex dating back to 1866. In its most recent incarnation, the buildings were being used by the New England Confectionary Co., which has since moved to Revere.
In downtown Boston, C&W also closed the latest ownership chapter on 100 Franklin St., a nine-story, 117,000-square-foot building located in the heart of the Hub’s Financial District. As previously reported by Banker & Tradesman, Oasis Development of Lynn agreed to pay $19.5 million for that asset, one which also carries an impressive history.
Built in 1908, 100 Franklin St. initially served as the headquarters of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co., and in the heyday of Boston’s political intrigue in the 1960s and 1970s, the property became the unofficial home of the Boston Coordinating Committee, aka the Vault. That group, which some claimed wielded extraordinary influence over local governance, ultimately lost power, while 100 Franklin St. itself fell into disrepair in the mid-1980s.
The structure was reborn in 1998 when Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. of Brighton acquired 100 Franklin St. and launched an extensive renovation program that led to a critical lease with the Boston Stock Exchange. The stock exchange created a state-of-the-art trading center than can be seen from the street and enabled Intercontinental to sell the building to SSR Realty Advisors two years ago for $27.5 million. A subsequent tailspin for Boston’s office market forced SSR to move 100 Franklin St. at a discount of the price it had paid Intercontinental, but Griffith Loeber predicted good times ahead for the asset, maintaining that Oasis secured a building with “an irreplaceable location.”
Joe Clements may be reached at jclements@thewarrengroup.com.
