Despite a lingering legal dispute with one abutter, a Boston developer is pushing ahead on plans to construct a 48,000-square-foot office building in the city’s North Station district, with a goal of completing the structure by year’s end. The project is being built by Fred Mannix and his firm, Portland Business Assoc.

We’re very excited, said broker Karyn B. McFarland, whose firm is leasing agent for the project. It’s going to be gorgeous.

Not only does McFarland maintain that the building will be an aesthetic improvement for the vacant lot currently at 155 Portland St., she also noted that North Station is badly in need of additional office space. According to Cushman & Wakefield, for example, the 3 million-square-foot market has a vacancy rate of just 2.6 percent after starting 1999 with a 6 percent vacancy rate. Net absorption for the year stood at 235,000 square feet, while the average rental rate has increased to $37.95 per square foot.

Indeed, McFarland noted that 155 Portland St. would be the first new office development in North Station since the opening of 101 Merrimac St. in 1990. For most of last decade, the assemblage of aging warehouses struggled along with other fringe districts, but the past three years have seen the booming economy push companies farther out from the core office markets such as East Cambridge and downtown Boston. A mix of law firms, financial services outfits and high-tech companies have been flooding into rehabbed North Station properties in recent months, McFarland said, adding that there would be no letup of that stream save for the lack of supply.

I really don’t know of anything that’s available, McFarland said. If there is anything, its miniscule.

The lure of North Station is so great that one space-starved firm, Vantage Travel, recently paid a major premium to acquire 90 Canal St., a 78,000-square-foot office rehab into which the Brookline firm has since relocated. Vantage lost a bidding war with Meridian Investment Management Group last spring, with Meridian buying the building for $12.6 million. Less than three months later, Vantage paid $14.3 million for the property.

One of the few remaining blocks of space has apparently been spoken for, with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office reportedly inking a deal to take three floors at 200 Portland St. Meanwhile, industry sources said last week that the owners of Boston Beer Works have signed the CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares architectural firm to relocate to the former Massachusetts Gas & Electric Building on Canal Street. Besides luring CBT – one of the city’s hottest architectural firms – away from the Back Bay, the building’s owners also are said to be planning a new microbrewery in the ground floor retail space.

McFarland, whom sources said is brokering the CBT deal, declined comment on that matter, but a CBT official confirmed that the company will be moving across town, most likely in mid-summer.

In any event, McFarland was upbeat about the prospects for 155 Portland St., noting that North Station has undergone significant improvements in the past three years. Along with a new public parking facility and the opening of the Fleet Center, North Station was also bolstered by last year’s opening of the state courthouse on New Chardon Street.

‘Getting Better’
Currently waiting in the wings is selection of a developer for the former Boston Garden site on Causeway Street, with some sources maintaining that a decision is imminent. The likely frontrunner is New Boston Fund founder Jerome Rappaport Jr., whose firm is said to be pushing a mixed-use complex of office, retail and hotel/residential.

This is going to be a really neat area, said McFarland, whose firm has focused on North Station since its founding 10 years ago. It keeps getting better every day.

According to McFarland, the developers will not build on a speculative basis, but are optimistic they can find a quality tenant to take at least three floors and allow the project to break ground. The brick-and-limestone building was designed by Boston architect Anthony Pisani, while the engineer is McNamara Salvi. The project is fully permitted and ready to go under construction, McFarland said.

While that may be the case, there is nonetheless one potential glitch; a lawsuit filed by abutter Donato F. Pizzuti. The North Station property owner opposed 155 Portland St. on the grounds that it exceeded the historic Bulfinch Triangle’s height limits, charging that a city zoning board variance that approved the size was not legal. Although Pizzuti’s lawsuit was dismissed when he failed to post a $900,000 bond, he has since appealed that ruling.

Pizzuti’s attorney, Kevin L. Quinlan, expressed surprise upon learning that the project is moving forward. His client will have to mull his legal options, Quinlan said, but said he believes his case against Mannix and the city’s Board of Appeal will ultimately prevail.

It’s ironclad, Quinlan said of his client’s argument. I’ve got a lot going in my favor here.

Space Shortage Is Igniting New Interest in North Station

by Banker & Tradesman time to read: 3 min
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