The Boston office of the Trammell Crow Co. has brokered the sale of seven office and flex buildings totaling 333,508 square feet of space in Wilmington and Billerica. Everest Partners purchased the portfolio from Archon Group for $25.25 million, or $76 per square foot. Everest Partners is a privately owned real estate company based in New York City that has been acquiring, redeveloping, managing and leasing a broad array of real estate assets – including retail strip centers, first-class office buildings and flex buildings – in greater Boston for several years. The company has an office in Danvers.
Trammell Crow’s sales team of principal James F. McCaffrey, Senior Vice President Christopher A. Phaneuf, principal Peter Joseph and Senior Associate Jordan Berns brokered the transaction.
“We and the seller were very pleased at the amount of attention the offering received,” Phaneuf said. “The response was very strong, and at the end of the day the pricing was very attractive.”
The sale included 255, 261 and 265 Ballardvale St. in Wilmington, 5 and 10 Cornell Pace, also in Wilmington, and 700 and 900 Technology Park Drive in Billerica. Occupancy of the buildings currently is at about 86 percent.
In a related transaction, Everest Partners also purchased 847 Rogers St. in Lowell and 9 Townsend West in Nashua, N.H. The sellers also included The New Boston Fund. Scott Jamieson, senior vice president of Spaulding & Slye Colliers in Boston and Anthony Biette, vice president of Meredith & Grew in Boston, assisted with the transaction.
McCaffrey said that the sales team hosted more than 25 tours and received more than 12 offers for the properties in Wilmington and Billerica.
“It’s another transaction that demonstrates that the northwest suburban market is a hotbed for investment activity,” McCaffrey said.
The sales bring the Everest Partners portfolio to 33 buildings in metro Boston, southern New Hampshire and Rhode Island for a total of 2.2 million square feet of commercial space. The acquisitions together totaled $38 million. Financing was placed by Mike Marcone of Sentivany & Marcone with PNC Bank NA of Kansas City.
The tenant mix of the newly acquired buildings includes EMC, Federal Express, Titan Systems Corp. and Charles River Laboratories.
Despite the struggling coammercial real estate market, building sales continued to demand hefty prices throughout 2003. As real estate investment trusts continued to outperform the Standard & Poor’s 500, an increasing number of investors poured their money into REITs, and private investment dollars also chased real estate assets.
While the deals don’t always involve top-tier or well-leased properties, the supply of money from interested investors remains strong. Phaneuf said that 2004 is bringing more of the same – stable assets without much rollover are popular with investors while the more value-added opportunities are more difficult to finance and don’t garner as much interest.
“This deal [in Wilmington and Billerica], despite not fitting into the [ideal asset category], got 13 to 14 offers. That bodes well for the market,” Phaneuf said. “Investors are saying that the worst is over and buyers are anticipating a leasing market rebound. A year ago it would have been hard to sell a building with substantial vacancy and lease expirations but people anticipate that in 12 to 18 months it will get better.”
