A lawsuit that delayed the start of a 530,000-square-foot office, R&D and hotel complex next to the new TripAdvisors headquarters in Needham has been settled.

Normandy Real Estate Partners received final approval in November to redevelop the former General Dynamics Mission Systems buildings into a mixed-use development called Needham Crossing. The parties voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice on March 8, according to Norfolk Superior Court records.

300 First Ave Realty LLC, a company affiliated with Newton-based Intrum Corp., filed a lawsuit in December challenging the project, objecting to plans for a 7-story parking garage overlooking its 3-story office building at 300 First Ave. The lawsuit argued that the parking garage would harm Intrum’s property values and that the development’s 3,642 parking spaces should have been spread more broadly across the 27-acre parcel. Intrum acquired the office building in 2012 for $9.4 million.

The lawsuit also named the Needham planning board of appeals members as defendants and argued that the board failed to use hundreds of thousands of dollars provided by the developer in an earlier phase of the project for traffic mitigation. Normandy also developed the 280,892-square-foot TripAdvisor world headquarters which opened last year.

The Needham Crossing project includes the following elements:

  • Redevelopment of the 263,653-square-foot building at 77 A St. into 260,429 square feet of office and R&D space.
  • Redevelopment of the 171,004-square-foot building at 189 B St. into 160,000 square feet of office and R&D space.
  • Demolition of the 80,335-square-foot building at 156 B St. and replacement with a 91,000-square-foot hotel with 12,500 square feet of common area amenities and 19,000 square feet of retail space.

 

Appliance maker SharkNinja is the lead office tenant, leasing 150,000 square feet for a new world headquarters in a relocation from 180 Wells Ave. in Newton.

Normandy Real Estate Partners acquired the property in 2014 for $54.5 million.

Terms of the settlement are confidential, according to Devra Bailin, Needham’s economic development director. Normandy executives declined to comment. Intrum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Settlement Revives 530K SF Needham Crossing Project

by Steve Adams time to read: 1 min
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