Winn Development Corp. is selling One Brookline Place in Brookline Village to the Bulfinch Cos. and the adjacent Two Brookline Place to Children’s Hospital Boston (above).
It appears that a pair of Places could soon be going.
Located in what might be considered Boston’s original inner suburb for commercial real estate, One Brookline Place in Brookline Village is under agreement to the Bulfinch Cos., according to industry sources, while the adjacent Two Brookline Place has been tied up by Children’s Hospital Boston in a bid that could lead to construction of a major research facility recently approved for the site. The two separate deals were unveiled last week on Banker & Tradesman’s Web site, beta.bankerandtradesman.com, on which sources estimated that Bulfinch will pay between $55 million and $60 million for its target, compared to approximately $12 million to $15 million for the smaller Two Brookline Place. Both assets are owned by Winn Development Corp., the Boston-based firm which built them as part of its larger Brookline Center, a complex that features a mix of residential, retail and office uses, as well as structured parking and a Bertucci’s Restaurant.
Children’s Hospital spokeswoman Michelle Davis declined comment on the Boston institution’s pending agreement, while officials at Winn also would not discuss the matter. “It’s just a matter of respect for the town process,” said Winn spokesman Will Woodruff, noting Winn’s extensive dealings with the community to win support for the 220,000-square-foot research facility, a project that would ostensibly be taken over by Children’s should the sale be consummated.
“Nothing has changed,” Woodruff said, calling any shift in ownership merely a “financial transaction” and one which Winn had intended to discuss first with town officials. The appearance on the Banker & Tradesman Web site interrupted that plan, explained Woodruff, adding that a meeting has been set for this Tuesday with the community. Until such time, he said, Winn will not publicly discuss any aspect of either transaction.
Estimated to cost about $75 million, the larger Two Brookline Place would offer quick access to Children’s Hospital’s main campus at the nearby Longwood Medical Area in Boston, barely a mile away and also serviced by the D Line of the MBTA’s Green Line subway. “It’s a perfect fit,” one observer said of having Children’s enter the picture. Sources claim that Children’s pursued One Brookline Place as well, but was sidestepped in favor of the Bulfinch Cos., a crafty Needham-based real estate investor and developer active in eastern Massachusetts.
‘A Pivotal Location’
One Brookline Place is a 6-story, 100,000-square-foot structure that Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts broker Frank Nelson termed “the Cadillac of medical office buildings in Greater Boston,” a notion supported by the cacophony of medical-related companies on the tenant roster. “They have always done well there,” said Nelson, who represents another commercial building next door, 10 Brookline Place West. Following the departure of Harvard Community Health Plan several years ago, 10 Brookline Place West received substantial interest from medical-office tenants, observed Nelson, who is marketing approximately 30,000 square feet of the 150,000 square feet in 10 Brookline Place West on behalf of the landlord. Occupied partly by Dana-Farber, 10 Brookline Place West also houses the Art Institute of New England, with the public transportation considered a benefit for that institution’s constituency as well, said Nelson.
“It’s a pivotal location,” he said of Brookline Village, which is further serviced by such major roadways as Route 9, the Jamaicaway and Harvard Street to Coolidge Corner. Bulfinch CEO Eric D. Schlager declined comment on the deal for One Brookline Place, which some sources claimed is being marketed by Trammell Crow Co. Officials at that firm’s investment services group did not return calls regarding the situation.
