NEEDHAM, MASS. — International Data Group (IDG), a market research and data analytics firm, has opened a new, 125,000-square-foot office headquarters in the western Boston suburb of Needham. The company will consolidate its three main business units — IDC, IDG Communications and primary corporate entity IDG — under one roof. Dyer Brown, an architecture and interior design firm with offices in Boston and Atlanta, designed the facility, which can accommodate about 500 employees.
PRINCETON, N.J. — NorthMarq has arranged a $16.2 million loan for the refinancing of two five-story multifamily and retail buildings in Princeton. The first property is located at 25 Spring St. and consists of 52 apartments and three retail spaces. The second property is located at 55 Witherspoon St. and comprises 24 units and two retail spaces. Principal Financial provided the funds. The borrower was a public-private partnership between Nassau HKT Associates and the Borough of Princeton.
NEW YORK CITY — On Thursday morning, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told MSNBC that the city would fully reopen on July 1, citing office buildings, restaurants, retail establishments and theaters as property types that will be cleared to resume business at full occupancy. The mayor stated that roughly 6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered throughout the city, with roughly 36 percent of its adult population now fully vaccinated. Previously, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had initiated plans to ease restrictions on some of these properties, such as allowing office buildings to operate at 50 to 75 percent capacity and ending curfew times at bars. Both of those measures are set to take effect in May.
BOSTON — A partnership between Los Angeles-based investment firm CIM Group and Massachusetts-based Nordblom has sold 1000 Washington St. and 321 Harrison Ave., two office towers in Boston’s South End neighborhood totaling 475,000 square feet. The partnership originally purchased the properties, in 2017 and repositioned them: 1000 Washington Street, an 11-story, 242,000-square-foot building was renovated to provide Class A office space; and 321 Harrison Avenue, a three-story parking garage, was expanded by eight floors to create an 11-story, 233,000-square-foot office building. Funds managed by Blackstone acquired the buildings, and life sciences company BioMed Realty will operate the properties.
HACKENSACK, N.J. — JLL has negotiated the $114.4 million sale of Prospect Place Apartments, a 360-unit multifamily community located outside Manhattan in Hackensack. The property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and individual washers and dryers. Amenities include two fitness centers, a pool, game room, resident lounge and a business center. Jose Cruz, Steve Simonelli, Kevin O’Hearn, Michael Oliver, J.B. Bruno and Michael Kavanagh of JLL represented the seller, Kushner Cos., in the transaction. The buyer was a partnership between Khosla Capital LLC and DKJ Equity LLC.
PHILADELPHIA — GMH Capital Partners LP, in partnership with Wexford Science & Technology LLC, is nearing completion of ANOVA at uCity Square, a 461-unit multifamily project in Philadelphia’s University City area. The property will include 14,000 square feet of retail space and a 157-space parking garage. Units will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans with stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops and individual washers and dryers. Amenities will include a pool, indoor and outdoor lounges, fitness center with yoga and spin studios, coworking spaces, a complimentary coffee bar and beer taps, golf simulator and a dog washing station. Construction began in March 2020 and is scheduled for completion in August.
BRAINTREE, MASS. — New York-based Clarion Partners has purchased a 58,935-square-foot biomanufacturing facility at 55 Messina Drive in Braintree, a southern suburb of Boston. The property features six wet labs, temperature-controlled rooms, a new water filtration system and 18.5-foot ceiling heights. The facility was fully leased to Zimmer Biomet, a global leader in musculoskeletal healthcare, at the time of sale. Scott Dragos of CBRE brokered the deal. The seller was not disclosed.
By David Simon, SIOR, COO, NAI DiLeo-Bram Having recently surpassed the one-year mark since COVID-19 reached the United States, we can now better assess the pandemic’s impact on our local office market. Reviewing a year of data and market activity helps paint a more detailed picture of where things stand currently and may be headed. The overall direct vacancy rate for the combined counties of Essex, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset and Union New Jersey has risen 120 basis points since the start of the pandemic to 12.7 percent. Much of the space becoming vacant or available is higher-quality product; in fact the Class A direct vacancy rate has risen 180 basis points during the pandemic and is currently 17 percent. As a result, tenants looking in this segment of the market have a broad selection of high-quality office product. Sublet space has followed a similar trend to that of direct space, marking a 70 basis point increase since the start of the pandemic. More than 1.1 million square feet of Class A sublease product has become available during this period. Notwithstanding the statistics above, our firm recently completed over 28,000 square feet of office leases in Middlesex County, at 100 Metroplex …
NORTHAMPTON, PA. — Metro Chicago-based investment firm CenterPoint Properties has acquired a 1 million-square-foot industrial complex located in the Lehigh Valley city of Northampton for $201.5 million. Built in 2020, the property sits on 70 acres at 951 Willowbrook Road and features a clear height of 40 feet, 149 dock doors, 166 trailer parking stalls, 759 car parking spaces and an ESFR sprinkler system. The acquisition marks CenterPoint’s first in the Lehigh Valley. John Plower, Ryan Cottone, John Huguenard, Paul Torosian, Rob Kossar and Jeff Lockard of JLL represented the seller, a joint venture between Rockefeller Group and Los Angeles-based PCCP LLC, in the transaction.
PHILADELPHIA — WinnCos., a developer and operator of affordable and market-rate housing, has purchased Carl Mackley Houses, a historic housing complex in Philadelphia, with plans to implement a $23.7 million renovation. The property, which is located on the city’s northeast side and currently houses 184 affordable housing units, originally opened during the Great Depression era. Named for Carl Mackley, a 22-year-old union worker who was shot and killed on March 6, 1930 while supporting a strike at the H.C. Aberle Co., the complex earned a spot on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 1982 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The rehabilitation effort will modernize apartment kitchens and bathrooms in four residential buildings; install central air conditioning in all units; replace all windows and roofs; and upgrade common areas. The project is being financed primarily by tax-exempt bond financing and an allocation of 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.