
Avon-based Condyne LLC and the New Boston Fund are hopeful for an August groundbreaking on a planned 233,000-square-foot distribution center in the Franklin Industrial Park.
The town of Franklin has long espoused one of the region’s friendliest attitudes toward business, and it now appears that the Southeastern Massachusetts community is finding new opportunities to roll out the welcome mat.
Even as much of the commercial real estate market remains in a deep freeze, several industrial projects in Franklin are gaining momentum, including two whose owners are so bullish that they are pushing forward sans tenants. Site work is underway at the Grove Street Business Center, being developed by the Maggiore Cos., while Avon-based Condyne LLC and the New Boston Fund are angling for an August groundbreaking on a supersized 233,000-square-foot distribution center in the Franklin Industrial Park. Elsewhere in that prime industrial complex, the Campanelli Cos. is working on a possible build-to-suit project for a 12-acre site it has owned for the past three years.
“It’s a market where everybody wants to be,” Condyne spokesman Michael McCarthy said last week in acknowledging plans for his company’s new structure, which will feature 40-foot ceiling heights, modern mechanical systems and extensive loading docks. Condyne and NBF recently acquired the 17-acre parcel from Tambone Corp., which had permits for two smaller buildings. The plan now calls for the single stand-alone facility, one meant to attract leading distribution companies.
“There’s strong demand for this kind of product,” Cushman & Wakefield Director J.R. McDonald said last week of the Condyne/NBF concept. “It’s really a state-of-the-art [facility] and one that people know is going to be built.”
Cushman & Wakefield has been retained to market the building, with McDonald joined by principals Kevin Hanna and James Thomson in the leasing effort. According to McCarthy, the property can be subdividable to blocks of 87,000 and 125,000 square feet.
Meanwhile, Woburn-based Maggiore is developing the first of three industrial/flex buildings on a 23-acre site just off Interstate 495. The initial structure will feature 90,000 square feet of space, said Scott R. Hughes, president of Hughes Properties Inc., leasing agent for Maggiore. During a tour of the site last week, Hughes said he is not concerned by the Condyne/NBF project because the Grove Street complex is catering to smaller companies that would likely not be candidates for the larger building. “We don’t feel we are competing with the high-bay user,” said Hughes.
Principal Paul J. Maggiore said he is confident that his buildings, which will have ceiling heights of 18 feet and can be subdividable to increments as small as 6,900 square feet, will attract enough users to make the concept feasible despite the economic slide of the past year. Having successfully developed similar facilities in Southborough, Maggiore said he is looking to service that niche in Franklin. The typical tenant for such space includes light manufacturers, distributors and sales servicers. Maggiore’s tenant roster includes such firms as AT&T, Volvo, Cellular One and American Tower Corp.
Vacancies Absent
Maggiore said he decided to build on a speculative basis because it improves the marketability of the project. “Most companies want it under construction” before they will commit, he said. “They want to be able to touch it.”
Because the Maggiore Cos. handles all construction and build-out itself, tenants can be assured of fast and responsive service, Hughes said. The initial building will be ready for fit-out within 90 days, he said, with Maggiore offering build-out services as well.
Maggiore said he prefers the one-stop approach because it ensures quality control and provides greater comfort for potential tenants. Paul Maggiore Builders Corp. is general contractor for the project, with work being monitored by both Maggiore and construction supervisor Peter Lentine.
Hughes said Maggiore’s track record as a hands-on developer has been a help in promoting the new building. Along with the 90,000-square-foot structure now under way, Maggiore is planning a second building of 76,000 square feet and a third with 55,000 square feet. Hughes and colleague Robert E. Newis are brokering the space for Maggiore. Rental rates will be in the $7.50 per-square-foot range with a five-year minimum lease.
Hughes said Franklin has become a popular destination for companies due to various factors, including its ability to draw from several labor markets such as MetroWest, Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, which is barely five miles away from Maggiore’s site, located between Exits 16 and 17 off Interstate 495.
“Companies see it as a very good location,” said Hughes of Franklin. That interest is reflected in the tight vacancy rates, he noted, with industrial properties in Franklin sporting a 1 percent vacancy and R&D/flex buildings at just 3 percent.
The activity at the Franklin Industrial Park will narrow already limited opportunities there even further. According to industry sources, Campanelli is in negotiations to do a build-to-suit for its parcel, with some maintaining Fidelity Investments is the potential user. Sources said they believe Fidelity is seeking about 80,000 square feet of warehouse space. Campanelli Cos. principal Daniel DeMarco acknowledged last week that the company is discussing a possible deal, but declined to provide details.
“We’re working on at least one transaction, but it is not committed and we cannot comment on it,” DeMarco told Banker & Tradesman.
The Condyne project is not the first effort by Cushman & Wakefield at the Franklin Industrial Park, with the firm also heavily involved in the development and leasing of 109 and 111 Constitution Blvd., as well as the subsequent sale of the two hulking distribution buildings by Lincoln Properties Corp. to the RREEF Funds. McDonald noted that the industrial market overall has fared better than the office sector, and has done especially well in core communities such as Franklin and Taunton.
“You’ve got two [developers] going on spec in Franklin,” he said. “Clearly, the market has to be telling people something.”