The Davis Cos. has bought 1210-1230 Washington St. in Newton from Berwind Property Group for $16.5 million. The property is a three-building, 90,000-square-foot office park.
A slice of Newton’s commercial real estate market has changed hands, with the Davis Cos. buying 1210-1230 Washington St. from Berwind Property Group. The three-building, 90,000-square-foot office park traded last week for $16.5 million, or approximately $183 per square foot.
“It’s a strong number,” Berwind Vice President Albert J. Corr said last week of the sales price, which was substantially above the $11.7 million his firm paid for the asset in 1999. Acquired as part of Berwind’s fourth real estate investment fund, the complex underwent a successful lease-up program that attained 100 percent occupancy this spring when Corporate Interiors signed on for 17,000 square feet. Most of the tenants are committed until 2012, Corr said, offering a measure of stability well into the future.
Davis Cos. principal Jonathan Davis was unavailable for comment, but Corr said he believes the stable lease situation and credit health of the tenants prompted interest in the opportunity, attracting more than a dozen suitors initially before being narrowed to a trio of finalists. While the pricing was similar for all three, the Davis Cos. won out due to more favorable terms offered, according to Corr, who added that the two sides also had a level of comfort between each other after having done business together in recent years. In fact, Davis simultaneously acquired a Connecticut building from Berwind last week, a 130,000-square-foot office property that Davis had sold to the firm several years earlier.
‘A Landmark Building’
According to Corr, attributes that initially drew Berwind to 1210-1230 Washington St. include visibility from the Massachusetts Turnpike Extension and a quick trip via that roadway to both downtown Boston and the suburban market. “It’s a landmark building,” said Corr, noting that “over the course of time, it has always leased well.”
The property is also typical of Berwind’s value-added approach to real estate, with Corr pointing out that his firm would be unlikely to purchase 1210-1230 Washington St. in its current state. Based in Philadelphia, Berwind has undertaken several revival projects in Greater Boston in recent years, converting the former 3Com Corp. eastern headquarters in Marlborough into a multi-tenanted property after buying that in 2002, and trading 100 Cambridgepark in Cambridge last year for $27 million following a lease-up effort that improved occupancy from 35 percent to 100 percent.
McFarland & Finch of Boston served as exclusive leasing agent at 1210-1230 Washington St., while Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts was the broker involved in selling the park to Davis. Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets Group of Robert E. Griffin Jr., Marci Griffith Loeber, Edward C. Maher Jr. and Christopher T. Griffin represented Berwind and procured the buyer.
