Photo courtesy of Oxford Properties Group
The real estate arm of a Canadian pension fund resumed its big-ticket acquisitions in Boston with the $435 million acquisition of a Fan Pier office tower from Clarion Partners.
Oxford Properties Group announced that the acquisition of the 500,000 square-foot One Marina Park Drive reflects “compelling investment opportunities” that have emerged in the office market.
The purchase price is approximately $870 per square foot. Clarion Partners paid $482 million for the 18-story tower in December 2019.
Fan Pier developer The Fallon Company broke ground on the building during the depths of the 2009 recession, and offered free rent to tech incubator MassChallenge in a bid to make the emerging Seaport District a rival to Cambridge among startups. The building also attracted an anchor tenant in law firm Fish & Richardson, which leased 124,000 square feet in 2010.
Office construction subsequently spread across the Seaport District, which attracted a series of high-profile tenant relocations to newly completed buildings in the ensuing decade. Today the neighborhood has nearly 11.5 million square feet of office space.
At midyear, the Seaport office vacancy rate was 20.1 percent, according to CBRE. The average asking rent is $66.77 per square foot.
One Marina Park is 99 percent leased, Oxford announced. The property attracted a new tenant last year when British veterinary pharmaceuticals company Dechra leased 28,000 square feet.
Oxford made its entrance in the local office market in 2014 with the $2.1 billion acquisition of a five-building portfolio in Boston and Cambridge. In recent years it has attracted major tech leases in the Financial District by Klaviyo at 125 Summer St. and DraftKings at 225 Franklin St.
Oxford sold approximately $14 billion in office properties from 2018 to 2022 across its global portfolio.
Its Boston office portfolio now totals 3.2 million square feet. In a press release, Oxford said the Boston class A office market “continues to demonstrate positive momentum.”
Oxford is the real estate arm of OMERS, the Toronto-based public employee pension fund.
