Crow Family Holdings of Texas has retained Trammell Crow Co. to market the Totten Pond Office Center in Waltham, one of several commercial properties being put on the sales block.
Deal-starved real estate investors looking in suburban Boston have more options coming available to satiate their appetites, as local commercial property owners aim to take advantage of the hyperactive capital climate that has enveloped the region for nearly two years.
In the latest round of assets being put on the block, 690 Canton St. in Westwood reportedly is being offered by BPG Ltd., Neelon Properties is selling a seven-building office/flex portfolio in Waltham and Crow Family Holdings of Texas has retained Trammell Crow Co. to market the Totten Pond Office Center, also in Waltham.
“We think it’s one of the most recognized office parks in the Waltham market,” Trammell Crow Co. principal James F. McCaffrey said last week in confirming his firm’s selection to market the three-building, 295,000-square-foot Totten Pond complex, which Crow Family Holdings acquired five years ago for $53.7 million. The decision to divest the property was initially reported last week on Banker & Tradesman’s Web site, bankerandtradesman.com.
The Neelon opportunity totals 200,000 square feet, about 55 percent of which is office and the remainder consisting of flex space. “It’s a great package,” said Spaulding & Slye principal Michael G. Smith, whose firm is marketing the portfolio for the owners.
Constructed between 1962 and 1980, the seven buildings provide solid visibility along Route 128, noted Smith, and could lead to a redevelopment opportunity given that four of the assets are adjacent to one another and could allow a buyer to assemble a 6.8-acre parcel. Along with 60 Hickory Drive, the buildings being offered are 150, 255, 300, 303 and 335 Bear Hill Road and 300 Second Ave. As with Totten Pond Office Center, no asking price is being listed for the Neelon portfolio, with the sellers allowing the market to establish the benchmark.
Sources also claimed last week that Trammell Crow has been tabbed by BPG Ltd. to sell the Westwood property, a building the Philadelphia-based real estate investment firm purchased in May 2003 for $18.5 million. BPG ultimately brought the property to full occupancy, headlined by a major lease last year struck with New York Life Insurance Co. that further enhanced the building’s rent roll.
“That’s one of the top two or three office buildings in the Dedham/Westwood market,” opined one industry observer. The broker, who requested anonymity, said the planned redevelopment of the University Avenue business district surrounding the asset should further bolster 690 Canton St. as an office address. The 3-story building has 165,000 square feet of space. BPG has put several of its Massachusetts assets up for sale in recent months, most notably the Campus at Marlborough, a 126-acre former 3Com Corp. facility acquired in 2002 for $57.8 million prior to converting the 530,000-square-foot park into a multi-tenanted complex.
McCaffrey declined to discuss the status of 690 Canton St., while efforts to contact BPG officials by press deadline were unsuccessful. Sources insisted, however, that the Westwood building is being put up for sale.
‘A Superb Location’
Although most suburban Boston communities are attracting capital for real estate deals, Route 128 has been even more active as investors seek to take advantage of continued improvements along that well-known corridor. Just a short distance from 690 Canton St., for example, the Archon Group last week acquired the Dedham Executive Center at auction for $20.8 million, or about $117 per square foot.
The same broker tracking the 690 Canton St. situation was also upbeat about Archon’s prospects going forward with the 178,000-square-foot Dedham property at 980-990 Washington St. Situated at the confluence of Routes 1, 1A and 128, the property offers “a superb location,” said the broker, and was acquired sporting a measure of stability given an occupancy mark of nearly 75 percent. According to the broker, several prominent real estate firms attended the auction, which was conducted by Paul Saperstein Co.
“Money can still be made on that property,” insisted the broker, maintaining that “a little TLC” could upgrade the asset to nearly a Class A level from the current status of a B to B-minus facility. Among the attributes, the broker said, are 500 covered parking spaces on the 2.75 acre parcel, plus a building layout that can accommodate small and mid-sized tenants, constituents who have helped hasten the suburban recovery.
As for Totten Pond Office Center, McCaffrey said he believes the offering will see competition from a range of capital sources, explaining to Banker & Tradesman that several unsolicited offers have already been made even with the sales campaign just now being launched. “We expect the market is going to respond pretty favorably,” said McCaffrey, who will oversee the assignment along with Trammell Crow principal Peter Joseph, Christopher Phaneuf and investment team member Jordan Berns.
Developed by Griffith Properties in the mid-1990s, the Totten Pond Office Center currently has an occupancy rate of about 90 percent and a tenant roster featuring such prominent companies as Texas Instruments, Dun & Bradstreet and BMC Software, which occupies more than 50,000 square feet in the park. The location in the heart of the Waltham office market is another bonus, according to McCaffrey, given that community’s resurgence after being decimated by the recession that took hold in 2001.
After vacancy rates soared close to 30 percent at the depths of the difficulties, Waltham has roared back during the past 18 months, so much so that the direct vacancy finally fell below 10 percent in the first quarter of 2006 for the first time since 2002. Rental rates also have responded impressively of late, with Trammell Crow citing leases being completed in the market at rates approaching $40 per square foot.
The Neelon portfolio is mostly a value-added play, said Smith, who concurred that Waltham’s resurgence is fomenting interest among developers for deals of all sorts. Spaulding & Slye’s team already has received some 20 responses to the opportunity in the early stages of marketing, said Smith, with tours already commencing. Along with Smith, the Spaulding & Slye investment team assisting Neelon in the sales effort includes Cappy F. Daume, Scott J. Jamieson, Gail McDonough and Sean Keaney.
