Lincoln Property Co. and Realty Financial Partners have paid $17.6 million for 293 Boston Post Road in Marlborough, a 5-story, 199,000-square-foot office building.
One of suburban Boston’s most recognized office buildings has been sold, with Lincoln Property Co. and Realty Financial Partners acquiring 293 Boston Post Road in Marlborough for $17.6 million. The 5-story, 199,000-square-foot facility had been owned by Principal Global Investors.
“Given its recent capital enhancement, 293 Boston Post Road is well poised to take advantage of the rebounding market conditions and a future uptick in rental rates,” said Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Executive Director Edward C. Maher Jr. in a press release announcing the transaction. Cushman & Wakefield negotiated the deal on behalf of the seller and procured the buyer as well. Joining Maher in marketing the asset were Robert E. Griffin Jr., Marci Griffith Loeber and Christopher T. Griffin, all members of Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets Group.
Besides the physical upgrades from Principal, Maher said 293 Boston Post Road is attractive due to a full-height, glass-topped atrium, outdoor balconies and plentiful on-site parking offered by a 13-acre campus. Located just a few minutes off Interstate 495, the building also has extensive frontage along busy Route 20, noted Maher, and has a freestanding daycare center available to service workers with young children.
Although the I-495 office market has seen a difficult stretch in the new millennium, Maher said the I-495 West submarket where 293 Boston Post Road is situated does appear to be on the mend. “Based on Cushman & Wakefield’s experience over the last quarter, rents in this submarket appear to be stabilizing, tenant demand is growing and investors are positioning themselves to take advantage of the likely uptick in demand and subsequent improved rental rates,” said Maher.
The deal also represents the continued popularity for Massachusetts office properties by investors, even for fringe office markets still in a recovery mode. A hefty portion of another $2 million in commercial real estate sales brokered this year by Cushman & Wakefield will be office buildings. Among other assets, the company has brokered such suburban sales as the $272 million disposition of the Bay Colony Corporate Center in Waltham, while the firm recently sold the Prospect Hill Office Park in Waltham for $63 million and 117 Kendrick St. in Needham. That 211,000-square-foot property was purchased by Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. of Brighton, with the real estate investment firm paying a healthy $180 per square foot for the recently renovated building.
