Two shopping plazas bagged for $12.5m
Burlington-based Linear Retail Properties recently exercised purchase options on two suburban shopping centers. Linear had been controlling the Stoughton and Dedham shopping centers under a master lease it entered into last April. The shopping plazas’ purchase price topped $12.5 million.
The Stoughton plaza, purchased for $9.37 million, is anchored by a Walgreen’s. The Dedham property, purchased for $3.25 million, is a standalone building leased to Lenscrafters. Linear owns a much larger building next door. Both properties sit at the entrance to Dedham’s new, upscale Legacy Place retail center, which is set to open this summer.
The seller was Framingham-based developer John DeMatteo. Boston Private Bank financed the Stoughton acquisition, while Linear paid cash for the Dedham building.
It’s an interesting time to be in retail, conceded Linear founder and CEO William Beckeman, but not as disastrously interesting as some might believe.
"It’s very difficult for people to differentiate between what they read in the national press and what we’re seeing in New England. On a relative basis, we’re faring better because of supply constraints."
Ironically, that’s one of the reasons, other than pricing, that Linear hasn’t been more active on the acquisition side.
"We’re looking," Beckeman said, "but the only things moving are under distress. The owners of the kinds of properties we buy understand how properties perform in up and down markets, and they’re less willing to sell. We haven’t seen a lot of distress yet around here. Maybe we won’t."
Check Out This Latest Scam
Are you looking for a nice condo to rent? Well, a "construction engineer" named "Mary Ford" wants to rent you her two-bedroom, two-bath condo on Broad Street in downtown Boston for just $1,100 a month – all utilities included. She’s willing to rent to you at that price for "minimum one month and maximum six years (or more)." Talk about flexibility!
Sound too good to be true? Well, there is a catch. She’s in the United Kingdom with the keys, and she wants the money for the first month deposited in her bank account. She’ll send you the keys and a contract, and you just deposit the money in an escrow account until you receive them, then the money will be transferred to her.
Yes, this sounds dicey, but don’t worry … because according to the ad "Ms. Ford" has placed on Craigslist, someone you trust will act as the intermediary: the National Association of Realtors!
Unfortunately, nobody told the NAR that it would be a part of the deal. In fact, it so resented being left out of the loop that it released the following statement on March 3: "NAR is not involved in this business and believes it is a scam."
Whoa … really? In fact Ralph Holman, the associate general ouncil for NAR, said it contacted the FBI and Craigslist to report the listings. Most of these scam apartments are in California, but some have popped up in Boston, too.
"Maybe they think people in California and Boston are more susceptible to this type of thing," Holman said.
Wait, what’s that supposed to mean? You aren’t going to give me the keys to this condo?
Beacon Hill’s Building Code Brouhaha
State officials gathered environmentalists, municipal officials and development professionals in a sweltering Beacon Hill basement last Tuesday, for the purposes of fighting about energy efficiency.
Deval Patrick‘s administration – members of which, it appears, are unable to locate the thermostats in their own buildings – are pushing a dramatic revision of the state building code. If enacted, the changes would let cities and towns push strict energy standards at their own discretion. New homes would have to be built to use 40 percent less energy, while new commercial buildings would have to install proscriptive improvements or demonstrate 20-percent improvements in efficiency, depending on their size.
Confused? So is Jim Hunt, Boston Mayor Tom Menino‘s top environmental bureaucrat. Hunt has been pushing energy efficiency on many fronts, going so far as to write LEED standards into city zoning for large buildings. But at Tuesday’s hearing, Hunt said he wasn’t sure the city would opt in to the regulations, if given the choice. That’s not because he disagrees with their intent. It’s because he can’t understand what they say. "This is an incredibly complex set of regulations you’ve put forward," he said.
Ann Berwick, the state’s undersecretary for energy, cast the code as part of a wider statewide push to make "very significant changes to the way we generate energy and build buildings." Still, she said, "We live in the real world, we read newspapers." That’s why the administration had dropped a bid to retroactively lump in existing buildings with a renovation trigger mechanism.
Still, the development community didn’t react like the administration is doing it a favor, as a parade of large- and small-scale builders ripped the changes. NAIOP‘s Tamara Small said the changes would lead to a "confusing, constantly changing patchwork of codes throughout the commonwealth," and would allow towns to block growth.
"Many people worked hard to implement the uniform code," said Joe Prondak, Milton’s Building Commissioner. "It’s one of the greatest tools the building community has."
Benjamin Fierro, an attorney with the Home Builders Association of Massachusetts, said the code change "is about politics," and would erect "an economic barrier to first-time homebuyers, young couples and affordable housing."
