One Liberty Square in downtown Boston is among the for-sale Hub commercial real estate properties that Spaulding & Slye will broker on behalf of their owners.
Spaulding & Slye is hanging ‘For Sale’ signs on Boston – lots of them.
After orchestrating a slew of Hub commercial property dispositions during the past year, the real estate services firm has been tapped by several additional building owners to peddle their assets, among them 300 A St. in the Seaport District, as well as One Liberty Square and One Washington Mall, both in the core downtown market.
“We have a busy summer ahead of us,” acknowledged Spaulding & Slye Senior Vice President Scott J. Jamieson, a member of the investment sales team that also features Managing Directors Michael G. Smith and Cappy F. Daume and Vice President Gail McDonough.
The assignments are not restricted to just Boston proper. Spaulding & Slye also has been retained as brokers of 103 4th Ave. in Waltham, a 60,000-square-foot office/flex building that Jamieson said offers the potential for expansion and/or renovation that could allow a buyer to take advantage of a sustained rebound in the suburban office market. “It is the premier development site in Waltham,” Jamieson said. Overlooking Route 128, 103 4th Ave. is owned by Crosspoint Assoc. and BayNorth Capital, two Massachusetts-based operations.
Spaulding & Slye also is marketing the Jefferson Office Park in North Andover on behalf of BPG Ltd., an engagement first reported in last week’s Banker & Tradesman. Other suburban properties already being marketed by the firm include a portfolio of Waltham buildings owned by the Neelon Cos. and 425 Fortune Blvd. in Milford, a 2-story office/flex building located just off Interstate 495.
Back in Boston, the latest slate of assets is being pitched without an asking price, following a formula that has become increasingly popular among investment sales brokers. In each case, interest is expected to be heavy enough to create a bidding competition among potential suitors, explained Jamieson, who noted that capital chasing commercial product has shown little sign that conditions will ease anytime soon, as funding sources continue coming into the region from across the globe.
Spaulding & Slye has become a leading broker of Boston commercial buildings, trading such properties in recent years as 18 Tremont St., One Faneuil Hall Square, One Boston Place and Two Liberty Square. Earlier this year, the company also represented Prudential Real Estate Investors in its sale of 40 Broad St. to Transwestern Investment Co. for $50 million, while late last month the investment group assisted Essex River Ventures in its disposition of 225 Friend St. to Everest Partners for $12.3 million.
‘Jewel Box’
Perhaps the most ornate of the latest trio being marketed by Spaulding & Slye would be One Liberty Square, a 13-story, 157,000-square-foot office building whose architectural attributes are so unique that the building has been featured in movies and television programs, including “Housesitter,” which starred Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. The curved, 80-year-old structure is not just another pretty facade, however, with a renovation in the mid-1990s making the property a functioning office address that serves as home to several prominent tenants, including Cabot LNG, Guardian Life Insurance and Berman DeValerio & Pease.
Investors also have been smitten by One Liberty Square in recent years, with the so-called “jewel box” asset selling for $48.6 million in 2001 and trading again in 2004 when it was acquired as part of a larger portfolio from the erstwhile Lend Lease Real Estate. That Australian buyer, MacQuarie Office Trust, is Spaulding & Slye’s client in the current sales campaign.
A few blocks away, One Washington Mall is being put on the market again by Brighton-based Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. more than a year after the firm pulled the asset off the sales block. Intercontinental officials never explained the reasoning behind that decision, which followed a tentative agreement with one local buyer that ultimately fell apart. Intercontinental has owned One Washington Mall since 2001, paying $42 million for the 155,000-square-foot building for one of its real estate investment funds. The retail/office property sits a few steps from Boston City Hall on one side and serves as the gateway from the north to the Financial District on its other flank.
Whereas One Liberty Square and One Washington Mall are sited in the heart of the city’s traditional economic core, 300 A St. offers buyers a foothold in the emerging Seaport District, which finally appears on the verge of fulfilling its promise as the Hub’s most dynamic growth area. Besides the new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, a $700 million behemoth located just up the street from 300 A St., the district has received hundreds of millions of dollars in public infrastructure upgrades during the past decade and is now capturing private investment for construction of new office buildings, hotels and residential units.
Recast as the Harbor Corporate Center, 300 A St. is a one-time warehouse renovated into modern office space three years ago by the previous ownership, Boston Wharf Co. It was sold last year to Goldman Sachs when that firm acquired the last remaining holdings of Boston Wharf in the Seaport District, but the new owners have opted to divest that piece of the portfolio.
