MARLBOROUGH, MASS. — Avison Young has negotiated a 40,650-square-foot lease at an industrial flex property located at 753 Forest St. in Marlborough, a western suburb of Boston. Built in 1986, the 75,000-square-foot property can accommodate office, storage, distribution and technical training uses. Bill Sullivan and Jon Pezzoni of Avison Young represented the tenant, Richardson Electronics, and the landlord, True Associates of Westwood, in the lease negotiations.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Developer DivcoWest has broken ground on a 375,000-square-foot life sciences building at 441 Morgan St. within Cambridge Crossing, a 43-acre mixed-use development located at the junction of Cambridge, Boston and Somerville. Designed by Ennead Architects and Jacobs Consultants, the building will consist of 10 floors of lab space plus two penthouse floors and five outdoor terraces. DivcoWest expects to complete construction of the shell of the building in early 2023 and to subsequently begin interior build-outs of tenant spaces.
QUINCY, MASS. — Chicago-based investment firm Waterton has acquired The Amelia, a 200-unit apartment community located in the southern Boston suburb of Quincy. The 10-story property was built on 1.2 acres in 2006 and offers studio, one- and two-bedroom units. Amenities include a fitness center, resident clubhouse and an outdoor deck. Waterton will implement a value-add program focused on unit interiors and amenity spaces. The seller was not disclosed.
SPRINGFIELD, MASS. —The Michaels Organization has purchased Bergen Circle Apartments, a 201-unit mixed-income housing property in Springfield, located in the western part of the state. MassHousing provided Michaels with a $13.3 million construction loan along with a $7.9 million repair loan to fund a renovation program that will include HVAC upgrades, new flooring and appliances and new window installation. The community offers two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments, 118 of which are restricted to households earning up to 50 percent of the area median income (AMI). Fifty-two units restricted to those earning up to 80 percent of AMI. The remaining units are rented at market rates. The general contractor for the renovation program is Michaels Construction; the architect is Urban Practice.
MALDEN, MASS. — A partnership between regional developer Quaker Lane Capital and Turnbridge Equities will develop a 160,000-square-foot building that can support traditional office or life sciences users in Malden, a northern suburb of Boston. Global architecture firm Gensler is designing the nine-story facility, which will be located within an Opportunity Zone. Construction is expected to begin in the first half of 2022 and to be complete some time in 2023.
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS. — Cornerstone Realty Capital has arranged a $12.2 million loan for the refinancing of a five-story apartment building in the Egleston Square neighborhood of Jamaica Plain near Boston. Completed in 2020, the property houses 39 apartment units and retail space on the ground floor. Units range in size from 515 to 1,320 square feet. Cornerstone arranged a fixed-rate loan with 12 months of interest-only payments followed by a 30-year amortization schedule. The borrower and direct lender were not disclosed.
CHELSEA, MASS. — Burgess Properties LLC has brokered the sales of two industrial buildings located in the northeastern Boston suburb of Chelsea for a combined $17.5 million. The first property at 3-7 Griffin Way spans 33,515 square feet and features a clear height of 20 feet. Oliver Street Capital purchased that asset for $10 million. The second building at 25 Griffin Way totals 25,000 square feet and features a clear height of 27 feet. That property sold to an undisclosed, Boston-based investor for $7.5 million. Steve Nohrden of Burgess Properties brokered the deals. The sellers in both transactions requested anonymity.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — A partnership between California-based Township Capital LLC and locally based developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes (CC&F) has acquired a 66,964-square-foot industrial building in Cambridge. The property is situated in the Alewife area, adjacent to CC&F’s mixed-use campus that is in development and will include 575,000 square feet of lab space, 250 multifamily units and 6,000 square feet of retail space. The seller was not disclosed.
BOSTON — Maryland-based Phillips Realty Capital has arranged two loans totaling $96.2 million for the refinancing and renovation of a pair of multifamily assets totaling 279 units in Boston. In the first transaction, Voya Commercial Mortgage LLC provided funds for Atrium on the Commonwealth, a 187-unit community near Boston University that was originally built in the 1920s as an assembly plant and dealership for Packard Motors. In the second deal, Hingham Institution for Savings provided financing for the 92-unit Longfellow Apartments near Harvard University in Cambridge. That property was originally built in 1917 and features studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. Adam Bieber of Phillips Realty Capital led the debt placement efforts in conjunction with Harmon Handorf, Emily Beeler and Bill Wrench. The borrower was full-service real estate firm The Hamilton Co.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Locally based mortgage banking firm Fantini & Gorga has placed $5.2 million in permanent financing for a 31-unit multifamily building located at 1558 Massachusetts Ave. in the Harvard Square area of Cambridge. The five-story building was originally constructed in the 1920s and sits directly across the street from Harvard Law School. Eastern Mortgage Capital provided the loan, which was structured with a 35-year term and a fixed interest rate. The borrower was not disclosed.