NORTHBOROUGH, MASS. — CBRE has brokered the $9.5M sale of 5 Beeman Road, a 55,515-square-foot industrial building in Northborough, located approximately 35 miles west of Boston. Completed in 2003 and expanded in 2011, the warehouse features 56-foot clear heights, and proximity to State Route 20, Interstate 495 and State Route 9. Scott Dragos, Doug Jacoby and Chris Skeffington led a CBRE team that represented the seller, Ferris Development Group, in the transaction. The team also procured the buyer, Northbridge Partners.
BOSTON — Cambria Hotels has opened the 159-room Cambria Hotel Boston, Downtown-South Boston. The hotel offers close access to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority red line. Amenities include a rooftop restaurant, lobby lounge, fitness center and 160-person event space. RODE Architects designed the building, the first Cambria Hotel in Massachusetts.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Square Mile Capital Management LLC has provided a $433.8 million construction loan for the next phase of Cambridge Crossing, a mixed-use development in the Boston area. The loan will fund construction of a nine-story, 479,000-square-foot life sciences and tech building with ground-floor retail space and below-grade parking. The loan will also finance the construction of a two-story, 19,000-square-foot retail and office building located on a separate parcel. The borrower was DivcoWest, a developer with five offices around the country. Cambridge Crossing will ultimately feature 2.1 million square feet of life sciences and tech space, 2.4 million square feet of residential space, 100,000 square feet of retail space and 11 acres of open green space.
AMHERST, MASS. — Metro Boston-based investment firm Crosspoint Associates Inc. has purchased Amherst Shopping Center, an 81,702-square-foot retail asset in the central Massachusetts city of Amherst. Built in 1997 and anchored by Big Y Supermarket and CVS, the property was 97 percent leased at the time of sale. Additional tenants include Dunkin’, Goodwill and Supercuts. Nat Heald and Chris Angelone of JLL represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The price was not released.
BOSTON — JLL has arranged an $870 million construction loan for the first phase of the redevelopment of Boston’s South Station transit hub. Upon completion, the project will ultimately comprise 1.9 million square feet of commercial and residential space. The initial phase will feature a 1.2 million-square-foot, 51-story mixed-use tower rising above the historic transit station, which was built in 1898. Scheduled for completion in 2024, the tower will house approximately 660,000 square feet of Class A office space, 166 condominium units and more than 500 parking spaces. Pelli Clark Pelli Architects is designing the project. The office component will feature 26,000-square-foot floor plates, 13-foot floor-to-ceiling windows and unobstructed views of downtown Boston and Boston Harbor. The residential component will include one-, two- and three-bedroom units, as well as penthouse duplex units, and amenities such as an outdoor pool, fitness center, conference center and onsite restaurant. Riaz Cassum and Jennifer Kelly of JLL arranged the loan through The Children’s Investment Fund on behalf of the borrower, a joint venture between Hines, APG Groep NV and Dune Real Estate Partners. “Developments of this quality and magnitude arise infrequently in a mature market such as Boston,” says Cassum. “The tower at South Station …
BOSTON — Charleston, S.C.-based Greystar has acquired land at 212 Stuart St. in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood for the development of a 19-story, 126-unit apartment building that will also feature ground-floor retail space. The property will offer one- and two-bedroom units as well as three-bedroom penthouses ranging in size from 500 to 2,100 square feet. Amenities will include a fitness center, lounge, library and bike storage space. Greystar plans to break ground this month and to complete the project in the first half of 2022.
BOSTON — Citizens Commercial Banking has provided a $53 million construction loan for 7INK, a 180-unit multifamily project in Boston. The property will be located within Ink Block, a mixed-use development at the former site of The Boston Herald in the city’s South End neighborhood. Floor plans will include fully furnished studios, one-bedroom residences and shared suites. The borrower was Massachusetts-based National Development.
With a pressing demand for new housing in the Boston area and communities struggling to provide affordable options to mitigate the effect of rising prices, the barriers to providing new affordable multifamily properties remain significant. Here in the Boston region, the scale of the problem is immense. Boston’s Metropolitan Area Planning Council recently declared a need for 185,000 new units of housing over next 10 or so years in the 15 cities and towns that comprise the inner core of the metro area — just to keep up with expected growth. Some of the integral variables and processes associated with multifamily development, like land acquisition and construction costs, can be tangibly quantified. But harder to define is the often unpredictable process of securing public approvals, wherein a development team must navigate the sometimes contentious ground between neighborhood groups and regulatory agencies. Locally Scaled Solutions In 2018, Related Beal completed The Beverly, a 239-unit, income-restricted project in downtown Boston, capturing headlines that heralded this significant model for addressing housing affordability in the region. Landmark projects like The Beverly represent great strides toward addressing the housing affordability crisis and have helped raise the awareness of efforts to develop real solutions to the …
BOSTON — Newmark Knight Frank has arranged the $128 million sale of 535-545 Boylston Street, a 184,643-square-foot office building located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston. At the time of sale, the building was 98 percent leased to 38 tenants. The property offers access to Copley Square and the Raffles Hotel & Residences project that is currently in development. Edward Maher, Matthew Pullen, James Tribble and Samantha Hallowell represented the seller, Manulife Investment Management. A joint venture between Bahrain-based Investcorp and New York-based Brickman was the buyer.
NEEDHAM AND NEWTON, MASS. — Avison Young Commercial Real Estate has brokered the $7 million sale of two retail properties in Needham and Newton, two western suburbs of Boston. The property in Needham, a 15,609-square-foot retail center located at 238 Highland Ave., is leased to Needham Montessori School, Mandarin Cuisine Restaurant and Needham Nail & Spa. The property in Newton, a 3,588-square-foot building located at 106 Needham St., is leased to fitness equipment distributor Gym Source. Brandon Dickinson of Avison Young represented the seller, Terrazzino Investment Trust, in the transaction. The buyer was not disclosed.