READING, MASS. — JOSS Realty has acquired a 139,356-square-foot office building in Reading. The sales price was not disclosed. Located at 55 Walkers Brook Drive, the fully leased property is less than a mile from the MBTA commuter rail in downtown Reading. Reading is approximately 14 miles north of downtown Boston. Cushman & Wakefield’s Boston Capital Markets team represented JOSS in the transaction. The seller was Rubenstein Partners LP and Nordblom Co.
BRAINTREE, MASS. — Colliers International has negotiated the $15.2 million sale of Windjammer Cover Apartments, a 72-unit, waterfront apartment community in Braintree. Located at 79 Shaw St., the property features a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units. Bruce Lusa, Jonathan Bryant, John Flaherty and Maggie Collins of Colliers represented the sellers, WJ Partners LLC and Oak Sapling Partners LLC, in the transaction. The buyer was True North Capital Partners LLC.
BOSTON — MassHousing has provided $2.1 million in affordable housing financing from the agency’s Workforce Housing Initiative to support the development of 233 Hancock, a five-story, 36-unit workforce housing community being developed by Arx Urban in Dorchester. The financing will help transform two former automobile repair shops into 36 units of new mixed-income homes, including 21 units of workforce housing. Of the 36 new apartments, 10 will be affordable for working households earning up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), and 11 apartments will be affordable for working households earning up to 100 percent of AMI. The remaining 15 units will be rented at market rates. The AMI for Boston is $107,800 for a family of four. Additional financing for the project is being provided by the Property and Casualty Initiative, which is providing $9.4 million in construction and permanent financing. Other sources include $3.2 million of private equity and $500,000 in Community Preservation funding from the City of Boston. Haycon is serving as general contractor on the project. The architect is RODE Architects Inc.
WHITMAN, MASS. — Cornerstone Realty Capital has arranged $5.8 million in acquisition financing for a three-story, 45-unit apartment building in Whitman. The property features a unit mix of 15 one-bedroom and 30 two-bedroom units. All units include stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, in-unit laundry and hardwood floors. Patrick Brady of Cornerstone secured financing for the borrower, a private family office, in the transaction. The lender was a local bank. Whitman is located approximately 24 miles south of Boston.
WORCESTER, MASS. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of a nine-unit apartment building in Worcester. The property sold for $710,000. Located at 148-152 Millbury St., the three-story property was built in 1920. Matthew Pierce of Marcus & Millichap’s Boston office represented the seller, a private investor, in the transaction. The buyer was also a private investor. The 11,505-square-foot building also includes ground-floor retail that is currently occupied by Three G’s Sportsbar.
LOWELL, MASS. — Cherrytree Group has arranged an $825,000 bridge loan for the preservation of the Lowell Legacy Hotel, a registered historic landmark in Lowell. The five-story building, built between 1896 and 1905, was recently declared eligible to receive Federal tax credits for historic preservation. Warren Kirshenbaum of Cherrytree arranged the pre-development funding on behalf of the borrower, Madison Security Group. Hampton Financial Partners provided the loan, which will serve as a bridge leading to long-term financing by the Small Business Administration. The new Lowell Legacy Hotel will contain 52 guest rooms as well as banquet facilities.
BOSTON — Linear Retail Properties has acquired a three-story, 8,131 square foot retail building in the Downtown Crossing neighborhood of Boston. The sales price was $5 million. Located at 19-21 School St., the entire building is currently vacant. Linear plans to lease up the property with a full-building retail tenant or restaurant operator. Mike Edward, Jake Golden and Jon Gifford of Perry Brokerage Associates represented the seller, Envision Bank, in the transaction.
The Boston office market continues to see established out-of-market tech users from a diverse group of industries take large blocks of space. In the Seaport District, Aptiv, a division of the car technology company Delphi Technologies, took 93,000 sq. ft. at 100 Northern Avenue. In the central business district, Spotify, a digital music service company, opened its first Boston location and leased 73,000 sq. ft. at Center Plaza. Verizon’s Oath, the digital publishing arm of the company, inked a 440,000 sq. ft. lease at North Station’s The Hub. And Bose, a consumer electronic products company, recently took the remaining available space at Boston Landing, bringing its leasing total to 145,000 sq. ft. at the project. The diversity of this new crop of tech entrants into the market solidifies the strength of Boston’s growing technology cluster. Innovators aplenty In a city once dominated by financial service and insurance firms, Boston is now home to a world-class entrepreneurial ecosystem. This is important as established companies across industries race to innovate in the digital age. The juxtaposition of Fortune 500 companies such as Optum and Amazon next door to newly funded and rapidly expanding home-grown startups such as Draft Kings and Toast makes …
LOWELL, MASS. — CBRE/New England has arranged the sale of Cabot Crossing, a 252-unit garden-style multifamily community in Lowell, for an undisclosed price. The property was built between 1987 and 1988 and comprises seven three-story buildings as well as a clubhouse and management office. The unit mix includes 28 studio, 131 one-bedroom and 56 two-bedroom apartments. Simon Butler and Biria St. John of CBRE/New England represented the seller, a joint venture between Taurus Investment Holdings and PhilMor Real Estate Investments, in the transaction. The buyer was Cabot Crossing Apartments Property Owner LLC, an affiliate of JRK Property Holdings.
CONCORD, MASS. — Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors has arranged the sale of a skilled nursing facility in Concord, a northwestern suburb of Boston. The facility was out of operation, after management challenges and a growing list of deferred capital expenditures forced its closing. The undisclosed seller sold the property to a substance abuse rehabilitation provider, which will renovate the property to serve that function. The price was not disclosed. Steve Thomes led the transaction for Blueprint.