Struggling to right itself from lingering financial difficulties, Modern Continental Enterprises has hired brokers to sell three major pieces of commercial property in Massachusetts, including the real estate and construction firm’s headquarters in Cambridge and a luxury marina located on Boston Harbor. By one estimate from a source familiar with the assets, the three properties have a total value of about $25 million to $30 million.
MCE has retained Spaulding & Slye Colliers to peddle the headquarters at 600 Memorial Drive, which the company acquired in the mid-1990s for $9.3 million. The 72,000-square-foot office building overlooking the Charles River also has a $19.5 million mortgage from Keybank NA taken out in 2001, according to records at the Middlesex Registry of Deeds. It is unclear how much of that note has been paid down.
Also on the block is Modern’s recently developed marina in Boston’s North End, with LandVest winning the assignment to market that asset. Besides several slips constructed to accommodate yachts, the marina features a tiny hotel that some observers said could be converted to condominiums. The final property is a land site that straddles Boston and Everett along Route 99. MCE has hired Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts as broker of the 34-acre parcel, which is located along the Mystic River in a gritty industrial area. The site had been designed to accommodate more than 500 residential units and various mixed uses, including retail space and a marina. MCE’s so-called Mystic Landing project never made it beyond the conceptual stage, although one source said the firm invested substantial capital into infrastructure on the property.
MCE officials and brokers for the land site and the North End marina did not respond to inquiries by Banker & Tradesman in time for this story, but sources insisted the properties have been put up for sale. Amid a series of ill-timed real estate investments and well-publicized difficulties as a lead contractor on Boston’s $14.6 billion Big Dig project, MCE has been in a financial tailspin for the past two years. The firm was further hit late last year when founder Lelio “Les” Marino died at the age of 69 following a lengthy illness.
Spaulding & Slye Colliers principal Michael Smith acknowledged that his firm is marketing 600 Memorial Drive. “It’s a terrific asset,” Smith said of the building, which is located close to all of Cambridge’s office and laboratory markets, as well as downtown Boston. Smith did not provide an asking price for the building, although the source familiar with the property claimed that the value would be no more than $150 per square foot, or about $11 million.
