Image courtesy of Onyx Partners

The new owners of a Route 128 landmark completed a retail lease with a national athletics gear chain following the property’s first change of ownership since 1971.

The ground floor is leased to Holliston-based Pure Hockey, which operates more than 100 locations including eight stores in Massachusetts, and will open in late summer, according to Anton Melchionda, founding partner of Onyx Partners Ltd., the new property owners. 

Needham-based Onyx Partners Ltd. acquired the former You-Do-It Electronics Center at 40 Franklin St. for $5.7 million in February, and is transforming two floors for its own headquarters.

The new ownership decided to retain the electronic sign atop the building, Onyx Partners Founding Partner Anton Melchionda said.

“Everyone in and around Boston knows it and it’s kind of a landmark,” Melchionda said in an interview.

The electronic center was originally located in Boston’s South End before following the tech industry migration to a high-profile location alongside Route 128 in 1965. It closed in 2024.

Onyx Partners acquired the property through a transaction brokered by Newmark and received $6.6 million in financing from Dedham Institution for Savings.

The project includes updates to the nearly 30,000 square-foot building’s core and utilities, and conversion of the top two floors into institutional-quality office space for Onyx Partners’ new headquarters.

The real estate development and private equity company previously redeveloped the Eastfield Mall in Springfield as Springfield Crossing, an open-air retail center anchored by Target and BJ’s Wholesale Club.