Retail giant TJX Cos. is known for offering consumers a veritable bottomless bin of discounted goods, from clothes to kitchenware. But when it comes to their own shopping requirements for new space, they may be surprised at their lack of options.

According to several reliable sources familiar with the discount retailer’s potential plans, the Framingham-based retailer is considering relocating from its 780,000-square-foot headquarters, Banker & Tradesman first reported last week.

TJX is currently in the market, kicking the tires on options available for its large requirements, sources say. That could bode well for property owners with large office parks, like the former Fidelity and Hewlett-Packard campuses in Marlborough, left vacant by those former tenants.

“TJX is looking for something big,” said one commercial broker knowledgeable about the possible move or expansion. “What will happen in the end, no one is exactly sure. But we know that whatever they want, it’s going to be big.”

The company’s motivation for hitting the streets for new space stems from its IT group in Westborough, which is in expansion mode and whose lease expires in the next couple of years. That upcoming expiration is making the company step back to take a long, hard look at its real estate needs.

It should also be noted that Framingham is a town with a dual tax rate: $16.03 per $1,000 of assessed value for residential property, but $37.11 per $1,000 for commercial and industrial property. The commercial tax rates in Westborough and Marlborough – which the company may be considering as potential homes – stand at $18.24 and $27.55 per $1,000, respectively.

Few Options

TJX occupies almost 1.3 million square feet of office space between its headquarters in Framingham and properties in Westborough, all of which is leased. But there are few contiguous options for a requirement of that size.

If the company intends to move just the headquarters site, even Fidelity’s former campus – at about 700,000 square feet – might not cut it, though sources say the company might be able to construct another 150,000 square feet on the Marlborough site. And while it’s certainly an option, even that still wouldn’t accommodate the whole kit and caboodle.

More likely than not, sources said, the company would choose a build-to-suit option, and commercial real estate insiders say there are only two likely locations for that: Westborough Office Park and the former Hewlett-Packard campus in Marlborough. But most of the sources interviewed for this article pointed to the 109-acre former HP site, which Framingham-based Atlantic Management recently purchased for about $9 million.

“There’s only a finite amount of property, especially in Framingham,” said one broker familiar with the options. “At some point they’re going to need to consider looking farther west, and they’ve already put their flag down in Westborough. I wouldn’t be surprised if they continued out to Marlborough.”

According to another broker, “It would be a total coup for [Joseph Zink, president of Atlantic] if they could get TJX to move there so soon after closing on the property.”

Calls to Atlantic Management were not returned.

Big Picture

Average Class A asking rents in the Framingham/Natick area are at about $26.40 per square-foot right now, according to information from Richard Barry Joyce & Partners. The first two of TJX’s three interconnected buildings in Framingham were erected in 1989 and 1990, with the third coming online in 2001. The first two portions are already more than 20 years old, and likely in need of upgrades to the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, as well as the roofs, though “they’re probably not leaking yet,” said one source familiar with the properties.

But when owner Campanelli Cos. decides to upgrade the facilities, built specially for TJX, they will need to redo everything from the HVAC systems to making the buildings ADA compliant.

“Staying where they are is certainly an option,” one broker told Banker & Tradesman. “But those buildings are older now and are in need of upgrades. When they start redoing things, they’ll need to bring them up to the latest building codes. But properties like that are … older and more expensive to maintain. It’s really more a function of when does the inconvenience and expense of maintaining older systems convince you that you need to do a whole retrofit?”

TJX will need to decide if it is worth it to deal with the headache of finding temporary swing space and relocating its people while construction is happening – then moving them all or partially back again.

“They may move everybody out of Framingham and Natick,” said another broker close to the company. “They’re looking at everything right now. There are a lot of big companies that are … looking for ways to squeeze, and there are some interesting opportunities out there now that weren’t there before in the market. So companies that are typically pretty smart about these things are thinking … ‘well, let’s see where it all leads.’ There are many others that are taking a step back and looking at the big picture for their real estate needs.”

TJX chose not to comment on this story.