The Walpole Park South business park is nearing the end of a lengthy build-out that ultimately will yield more than 500,000 square feet of industrial and flex space.
It seems Jake Murphy was right about Walpole after all. More than 30 years after the John D. Murphy Co.’s namesake acquired 100 acres along Route One, the resulting Walpole Park South business park is nearing the end of a lengthy build-out that ultimately will yield more than 500,000 square feet of industrial and flex space. The latest offering known as 9 Walpole Park South is virtually full despite breaking ground sans tenant just a few months ago, with the final 4,000-square-foot block tied up by an unnamed tenant, according to broker Catherine Minnerly, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts who is marketing the 56,000-square-foot building.
The park’s first speculative building was launched with a sense that the market was about to end a slide dating back to 2003, according to developer Donnell W. Murphy. “We were right there with quality product ready to go,” said Murphy, who is Jake Murphy’s son, in explaining the series of deals inked in recent weeks. Besides the pending agreement, the landlord has completed a 19,000-square-foot lease with a division of DHL, and signed Mundial Cutlery for just under 30,000 square feet. Pricing reportedly escalates to a healthy $8 per square foot over the life of both five-year deals, partly reflecting substantial office space included in the packages.
Minnerly attributed the park’s success to a location near Interstate 95, quality real estate and a hands-on ownership led by Donnell Murphy, who has been involved almost since the first 105,000-square-foot building opened in 1986. “The park has always done well, and [the family ownership] is a big reason,” said Minnerly, whose own lineage with Walpole Park South dates back to 1989. Although the newest building attracted a cadre of outside tenants, Minnerly said the park has benefited consistently from internal growth. Most of the five buildings constructed during the past decade typically involved an existing tenant committing to a portion of the space to answer expansion needs, lessening the development risk.
Like Minnerly, Donnell Murphy cited proximity near the interchange of Route One and I-95, plus quick access to Interstate 495 and the southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island markets, as critical to Walpole Park South’s growth. Bucking a series of commercial real estate failures suffered throughout suburban Boston in the early 1990s, Walpole Park South survived partly by not being overly leveraged, Donnell Murphy said. The firm hunkered down after completing its second building in 1988 until the region rebounded in the mid-1990s. In the interim, he said, the focus was on responding to existing tenants and luring a broad berth of new prospects to the park. One longtime fixture, Fiber Innovations Inc., is about to expand to 50,000 square feet, but Walpole Park South also has operations using as little as 3,700 square feet.
‘Flexibility Is Key’
“Flexibility is the key to the whole thing,” Donnell Murphy said. Tenants range from local to national, from manufacturing and distribution to sales and service such as a fire alarm company and electrical contractor, as well as operations related to health care. The park has evolved physically over time, including installation of modern mechanical and security systems, while ceiling heights now reach upward of 24 feet. The newest space at 9 Walpole Park South is scheduled to be delivered later this week. The DHL division moving there is Smartmail. Mundial Cutlery is relocating from Norwood. Cushman & Wakefield Senior Director J.P. Plunkett also handled the lease negotiations at 9 Walpole Park South.
Despite the economy’s prolonged struggles, Donnell Murphy said he concluded that the market would respond well to a new building, and after a slow start, activity increased dramatically in February. Donnell Murphy attributed much of the park’s general stability since the early 1990s to Minnerly, who joined Cushman & Wakefield in 2002 after 15 years at Hunneman Commercial Co.. “It really does lie with Cathy,” Donnell Murphy said. “She’s the hustler out there who has the contacts and the relationships that always make it work out.”
Minnerly was equally effusive, praising the ownership’s strong “rapport” with tenants. Walpole Park South has a current vacancy rate of about 6 percent, estimated Minnerly, or less than half the 15 percent registered for the suburban south industrial market overall. The park has nearly always operated with low vacancy levels, she said, even when the south region saw an unusual slowdown of requirements and difficulties for some tenants. Pockets continue to struggle, but Minnerly said she has been encouraged as the second quarter has begun in earnest, especially for communities such as Norwood, Walpole and Canton.
“The I-95 corridor has been extremely tight,” she said. “There is very little product in that area right now.” And while the submarket may be among the busiest in suburban Boston, it was not always that way. Walpole was little more than a dusty outpost in 1972 when Jake Murphy bought in, recalled his son, with the prospector selling off a portion for residential and keeping 54 acres for use as Walpole Park South. Today, the surrounding suburban industrial market encompasses 76 million square feet.
Jake Murphy “was a pioneer [of the south industrial market] for sure” Minnerly acknowledged. The company patriarch retains a presence in his Walpole-based firm, which has also developed retail and multifamily properties locally during nearly 50 years in business. More than half the firm’s revenues are derived from residential properties, for example, although Donnell Murphy said he is eagerly anticipating the beginning of the final piece of Walpole Park South on a prime commercial parcel fronting Route One.
“It’s the marquee one, the [project] I’ve been sitting on,” he said, “and we’re finally there.” Donnell Murphy said the structure could be as large as 100,000 square feet. Minnerly also predicted a solid response for the seven-acre site, which is being considered for a possible showroom or office location.
Joe Clements may be reached at jclements@thewarrengroup.com.
