Score a win for the suburbs in the tech office space tug-of-war.
Burlington-based e-commerce company Demandware has decided to expand at its existing offices overlooking Route 128. It will expand from 100,000 to 181,680 square feet over the next five years at 5 Wall St., a Piedmont Office Realty Trust-owned building and its home since 2010.
Demandware been weighing its options for nearly a year to accommodate a rapidly growing workforce, including build-to-suit sites in Waltham and Burlington. In the end, Demandware decided to grow in place at 5 Wall St. after receiving favorable terms on a lease extension and additional space that will enable it to occupy the entire building, said Steve Cook, a principal with Avison Young that represented Demandware in the transaction.
As with other real estate moves by local tech companies, the move reflected employee demographics and commuting patterns. But while other companies such as Acquia have moved from Burlington to downtown Boston for a transit-friendly setting, Demandware put a priority on tolerable suburban commutes and parking ratios.
“They have some important software engineers and to do downtown or even Waltham would have been a real stretch for them,” Cook said.
Another element that made the Wall Street location stand out was its generous parking ratio of nearly five spaces per 1,000 square feet, Cook said. That’s significant as companies switch to collaborative workspaces that can accommodate more employees by eliminating cubicles and private offices.
The transaction gives Demandware an additional 22,726 square feet effective Jan. 1, nearly half of which it currently subleases from Earthlink, and another 75,495 square feet in November 2019 that it currently subleases. In July 2021, Demandware will direct lease another 51,913 square feet. Tenant improvements paid by the landlord total $3.3 million, according to an SEC filing.
Beginning in January and expiring in June 2019, it also has a first right of offer to lease space at 5 and 15 Wayside Road.
Demandware has 430 Massachusetts employees, including a predictive analytics division at 955 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, and more than 100 open positions, according to a spokeswoman.
Avison Young’s Cook, Jack Kerrigan, Mark Coelho and Chris Adams represented Demandware in the transaction. George Wells of Piedmont Office Realty Trust represented ownership.
Demandware earlier this month announced its pending $2.8 billion acquisition by San Francisco-based Salesforce.com, which has a small office at 500 Boylston St. in Boston. Details of how the two companies could integrate their operations and real estate are expected to emerge following the closing.
