55 Summer St.
AIG Insurance has paid $175 million to buy five office and retail buildings on Summer and Chauncy streets in Boston’s Downtown Crossing from Synergy Investments and DivcoWest.
At $500 per square foot, the price reflects the continuing upswing in demand for class B office space in the downtown area. Synergy and DivcoWest paid $119 million for the buildings in three separate transactions in 2014.
An infusion of tech and creative sector tenants has boosted rents and occupancy rates of class B office buildings in the Financial District and Downtown Crossing. Cloud security company Threat Stack last year leased 13,768 square feet at 55 Summer St., part of the Hive portfolio, in a relocation and expansion from Fort Point and filled space previously occupied by Yahoo.
The 348,368-square-foot portfolio is 95 percent leased and includes ground-floor retail leased to CVS Pharmacy, Wendy’s, Drybar, Bank of America and Barry’s Bootcamp.
HFF’s Coleman Benedict and Ben Sayles represented the sellers.
Boston-based Synergy and DivcoWest acquired the 132,000-square-foot 38 Chauncy St. in August 2014 for $39.5 million from Brickman, when it was 80 percent occupied.
That came three months after the $31.5 million acquisition of the 71, 77 and 87 Summer St. for $31.5 million. Synergy and DivcoWest also partnered on the $48 million acquisition of the 125,000-square-foot 55 Summer St. in November 2014.
The new owners rebranded the portfolio as “The Hive,” adding amenities including conference space, a game room and casual meeting space accessible to tenants of all five buildings.
