Sun-splashed, open and collaborative workspaces have become all but mandatory among creative and tech-sector companies in Boston and Cambridge, but suburban office tenants of all types are lining up for their own makeovers and landlords are breaking out the buzzsaws.
In Waltham, Boston Properties is renovating its 1-million square-foot Bay Colony Corporate Center to give the decades-old buildings more of an urban loft atmosphere. In Braintree, an appliance company ditched its longtime offices for a converted warehouse with low-slung work stations, exposed ductwork and floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Tech tenants moving from downtown to the suburbs are looking for build-to-suit spaces that offer familiar environs for the growing millennial workforce.
“Every one of our clients – whether it’s a law firm, financial services or technology — they really want to look at what’s the current design philosophy,” said Robert Caulfield, senior principal and co-founder at Boston architectural firm Visnick & Caulfield. “It’s all about attraction (of employees), retention and branding.”
In the last few years, firms looking for non-traditional office space in the suburbs have filled up converted mill spaces such as Waltham Watch Factory. With vacancies dwindling in brick-and-beam properties, landlords of traditional office parks are looking to attract the next wave of tenants by modernizing office spaces on a speculative basis.
Bay Colony Corporate Center in Waltham is an office park that just a few years ago would have been considered state-of-the-art, with its proximity to Route 128 and the Mass Pike, views overlooking the Cambridge Reservoir and on-site perks including a fitness center and Rebecca’s Cafe. But many in the real estate industry see such complexes as waning in their ability to attract Class A office users, a perception underscored by the recent departures of several financial firms from Waltham to Boston’s Innovation District.
‘Not Their Father’s Office Building’
In 2012, Bay Colony owner Boston Properties began a reported $25-million renovation that includes new facades with 10- to 12-foot windows, higher ceilings and updated lighting fixtures.
“We’re now seeing landlords who are willing to get creative and give tenants what they’re looking for, which is not their father’s office building,” said Ryan Romano, an associate vice president at commercial real estate brokerage Cassidy Turley.
With office rents in Boston and Cambridge continuing to rise, suburban industrial spaces are attracting interest from office users. And they’re seeking to bring urban design features with them. In Woburn, two growing tech companies spearheaded makeovers of a former Bruegger’s commissary and a lock repair facility.
A rapidly growing 3D printing firm, Viridis3D, had highly specific requirements for office and technical space when relocating from Lowell, said Jim Trudeau, design manager for landlord Cummings Properties. The two-month renovation completed in January at 10 Roessler Road in Woburn removed flour and grain silos at the former Bruegger’s commissary and built out the manufacturing and demonstration space.
Similarly, mobile tracking provider Trimble wanted to keep Cambridge-style amenities when it moved out of its 6,500-square-foot Kendall Square space and into a former Stanley Lock office and service center at 1 Merrill St. in Woburn.
The Silicon Valley firm’s requirements for the 19,000-square-foot space included an outdoor patio, skylights, larger windows, indirect lighting and accent walls.
“It was a very humble location. They wanted to move a group out of Kendall Square and keep the Cambridge-trained staff that were used to the Kendall Square architecture and services,” Trudeau said.
Industrial spaces tend to have larger floor plates than traditional office buildings, lending themselves to open office designs.
“You’re not seeing this type of conversion on (Route) 495, but you’re definitely seeing it on 128,” said Robert DeMarco, a partner at Braintree developer Campanelli. “People are trying to maximize the value of the existing real estate and go to a format like this.”
The trend could accelerate the declining inventory of manufacturing space in Greater Boston.
Over the last decade, total manufacturing square-footage has shrunk from 29.6 million square feet to 15.2 million square feet, a 49-percent decline, according research by commercial real estate brokerage Transwestern RBJ. The space reductions stem from a combination of demolitions and conversions to other uses.
Braintree-based plumbing fixture manufacturer Symmons Industries acquired a multi-tenant warehouse next to its existing office and manufacturing space in May for $3.1 million. Its construction manager, Campanelli, hired Visnick & Caulfield to design a brand-new workspace. The new offices, accented with pastel dividers, connect to a break room with bar-high tables, lounge chairs, TV’s and a fitness center with showers.
The office makeover is an offshoot of the 75-year-old company’s changing business plan, including the 2007 launch of premium kitchen and bath product lines. Employee recruitment factored into the building designs approved by CEO Tim O’Keeffe, who took over as head of the company in 2010, Caulfield said.
“With all due respect to Braintree, it’s not exactly a metropolis,” Caulfield said. “So how to do you get somebody to go to Braintree to work? We needed to create an environment that needs to excite people.”
The lower costs for industrial space are partially offset by higher-end amenities in open offices.
Higher-quality lighting fixtures take the place of fluorescent bulbs, and utility bills reflect the cost of heating and cooler spaces with higher ceilings. Industrial conversions run about 15 percent above a traditional office buildout, Caulfield said, but companies justify them as part of their employee attraction and retention strategies.
And there’s no indication they’ll rethink that anytime soon. The architectural firm is in talks with another traditional office tenant looking to modernize 200,000 square feet of dated office space outside Boston.
“The director of facilities, who’s around 60, is saying, ‘My son comes in here and says he would never work in an office like this,’” Caulfield said. “They’re listening to that.”
Email: sadams@thewarrengroup.com
