the real reporter - mit€¦ · 2 the real reporter december 13, 2016 b oston — if there was one...

BY JOE CLEMENTS

BOSTON — Their credo—Skillfully Linking Borrowers and Lenders—comprises a mere

handful of words, yet Fantini & Gorga’s short, symphonius slogan speaks volumes as a mis-sion statement of sorts at the homespun mortgage brokerage firm this year celebrating two decades

arranging $6.9 billion in debt and struc-tured finance on more than 1,300 CRE transactions. Since its summertime 1996

launch, the boutique 12-member firm has nav-igated incredible market gyrations to cement a fi-nancing footprint across New England and one increasingly playing the national stage.

THE REAL REPORT

Infinity Possibility

BOSTON—Whether it will change hands by year’s end is un-clear, but a coveted Newbury Street commercial building on the final block of the famed retail cor-ridor stretching be-tween the Boston Public Garden and Massachuset t s Avenue has a com-mitted buyer ready to pay over $10 million, sources are claming. Boston

Realty Advisors is exclusive agent advising the longtime owners of 353 Newbury St., heirs of the Johnson

THIS WEEK’S ISSUEChange Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Court Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Way Fare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Driving 55 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Bike Stand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Fantini & Gorga 20th a ‘Simple’ Celebration

CRE Life Sciences Sales Lively at JLLBY JOE CLEMENTS

BOSTON — The ingredients are all there making metropolitan Boston a global hotbed of life sciences activ-

ity, and one real estate services firm amping up its presence in that sec-tor has done so by put-ting the right pieces in place, JLL Capital Mar-kets Managing Director Frank F. Petz says in relaying the division co-

led by Christopher Angelone was helped markedly this past winter with the arrival of a four-person leasing crew from Colliers headlined by Cambridge CRE fixture Jo-

seph Flaherty.“We now have a clear

edge marketing life sci-ences real estate,” Petz says of what he calls a “dream team” between Flaherty’s contingent that includes Managing

Stephen J. Kassin

Etienne E. Locoh

continued on page 43

BY JOE CLEMENTS

TAUNTON — A pair of “mission crit-ical” office properties 20 miles from each other on Interstate

495’s southern tier are be-ing offered for sale by Cush-man & Wakefield of Mas-sachusetts, according to industry sources who pre-dict institutional capital will be among a range of capital constituencies expected to be pursuing the fully leased, single-tenant facilities here

at 385 Myles Standish Blvd. and 431 Wash-ington St. in Franklin, properties compris-



The Real ReporterA COMPENDIUM OF COMMERCIAL PROPERTY & CAPITAL NEWS

DECEMBER 13, 2016

C&W Pitching 316,000-SF Office Listing;‘Mission Critical’ Assets Could Hit $30M

353 Newbury St., Boston MA

George J. Fantini Jr. John R. Gorga

Joseph Flaherty Jessica Hughes


385 Myles Standish Blvd., Taunton MA

2 THE REAL REPORTER December 13, 2016

BY MIKE HOBAN

BOSTON — If there was one consistent message delivered during the course of last week’s NAIOP SIOR Annual

Market Forecast at the Westin Waterfront Ho-tel, it is that Greater Boston’s CRE realm is undergoing enormous fundamental change, and doing so across all asset classes and ge-ographies. There is the continued suburban migration into Boston/Cambridge by both commercial and resi-dential tenants who are altering the prototype CBD tenant constituen-cy while suburban own-ers counter by adopting a diverse LWP environ-ment offering one-stop shopping and a cost al-ternative to soaring ur-ban rents. Add to it the seismic shifts detailed regarding industrial and retail markets thanks to

emerging e-commerce models, and this year’s program promised broad sea chang-es will level up even more in 2017.

“I think what the program (revealed) today is that we’re not stuck in the past,” David Begelfer, CEO of NAIOP Massachu-

setts, told Real Reporter following the program. “As we’ve seen with the space being vacated by financial services and be-ing taken up by tech firms, we are exactly what we bill ourselves to be, and that is an

BY JOE CLEMENTS

BILLERICA — The Colliers Interna-tional Capital Mar-

kets group is on quite a run with Greenfield Partners since negoti-ating their $7.9 million sale earlier this autumn of 35 Otis St. in West-borough to STAG In-dustrial, that deal first relayed by Real Report-er in early October in-volving a 122,000-sf flex building the Connecti-cut-based landlord had

spent $4.8 million on two years earlier as part of a larger portfolio purchase.

Now, CRE sources are indicating Greenfield is negotiating via Colliers the off-market sale of two more suburban flex buildings from that same package, those to the RAM Cos. of Maine, and has sepa-

rately retained the same team led by prin-cipals Scott Dragos and Douglas Jacoby to divest a fourth flex property from the portfolio, that one 43 Manning Rd. in Bil-

SIOR NAIOP: Lots of Change in Offing


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SOMERVILLE — An infill apartment building here in this densely populated community has been bought by a well-known multifamily investor, Mount Vernon Co. of Boston, in a

$12.1 million deal where founder Bruce Percelay has secured 30 units of The Webster Court from Danvers Land Associates, its seller advised by CBRE/NE’s res-idential sales duo of Simon J. Butler and Biria St. John. First Republic Bank stepped up with $9.0 million for acquisition and renovation costs to 25 Webster Ave LLC.

“The Webster Court represents a fantastic urban infill apartment property in one of Bos-ton’s hottest submarkets where Mount Vernon can execute their value-add strategy again by making improvements to the apartments and common areas,” Butler says in a press release announcing the closing. Constructed in 1988 on a 16,000-sf parcel in Somerville’s bustling Union Square, The Webster Court had been owned by Danvers Land Associates since pay-ing $2.1 million in July 1993, the entity an affil-iate of Integrated Real Estate of Somerville led by President Thomas H. Dupree.

The Webster Court at 25 Webster Ave. is a five-story, elevatored building constructed over a deck of parking providing 40 off-street spaces, 34 of which are covered or partly cov-ered, while the unit mix is primarily two-bed-rooms to the amount of 87 percent of the 30 total. “Finding well-constructed, strategically

located buildings in Somerville is not easy, and we are excited about significantly enhancing the value of this asset,” Percelay says in the release. The purchase adds to his company’s exten-sive residential platform in metropolitan Boston now at approxi-

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BY JOE CLEMENTS

WESTWOOD — Aided by a few famil-iar faces, Fairlane Properties is im-plementing a strategy to reposition

80 Wilson Way now that an expiration of its lone tenant’s lease is near enough that all 120,000 sf is being offered im-mediately even though the in-place pact runs through mid-2018.

“We are on it,” New-mark Executive Man-aging Director Michael Frisoli tells Real Report-er this week regarding an exclusive leasing assign-ment of the single-story structure that exudes the term “flex” in its functions as industrial, lab, office and research space let to a semi-con-ductor company only using 15 percent of the footprint. The tenant has “meticulously main-tained” 80 Wilson Way during its tenure which

predated his firm’s June 2010 purchase, ac-cording to Fairlane founder Michael Grill, with their looming departure making the space available for the first time since 2003.

“The possibilities are endless,” Grill tells Real Reporter in explaining its future

could range from warehouse—extremely popular close-in to Boston these days—or even laboratory and office product, the former of which is already there with 8,000 sf of Class 10 and Class 1000 fit out.

December 13, 2016 THE REAL REPORTER 5

FRAMINGHAM — If it seems like just yesterday Soniya Hotel was scooping up a 184-room hotel plus accompany-

ing British Beer Garden Restaurant here along Route 9, that might be understandable con-sidering that deal ne-gotiated by TRB Realty occurred barely four months ago when the Lexington-based op-

erator paid $23.6 million for 120 and 130 Worcester Rd. with $18.8 million backing from Northern Bank & Trust Co.

What is making the deal news now is that the asset is once more being put up for sale, and TRB Realty’s namesake own-er Thomas R. Blakely, CCIM, is reprising

his role as exclusive agent peddling the buildings on five acres where the endur-ing inn has sat since 1969. “That is quick,” one hospitality sector expert says when

apprised of the latest listing after Blakely had previously wowed the suburban scene helping the property’s former owners reap



TRB Listing Hotel (Again),This Time Price Tag $31M

Fairlane Tabs Newmark to Fill 120,000 SF

Thomas R. Blakely

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BY JOE CLEMENTS

AVON — A good slice of 2015 had NAI Hunneman’s crack South market team helping industrial clients on both sides of the aisle try to get leases over the finish line, and after a ton

of shoe leather and protracted negotiations, the pace of signed pacts has surged this autumn with a concen-tration of activity along Route 24. Two compa-nies have leased over 106,000 sf between them in Avon, while collectively the results for NAI Hunneman’s team of Catherine Minnerly and Ovar Osvold have totaled 135,625 sf in a quar-tet of commitments still not finished.

“People are more responsive now, but it was a lot of work getting deals done early in the year,” Minnerly tells Real Reporter in at-tributing the hesitation to tenants balking at rising rents and limited inventory whereas landlords are deemed more selective, em-boldened by the leveling up of demand. NAI Hunneman research shows a dramatic uptick in the third quarter after negative net absorp-tion of 312,000 sf at the half-way point was re-versed in 371,275 sf of summertime absorption to help drive vacancy into single digits, the cur-rent mark for Interstate 495 South’s inventory of 29.8 percent now at 9.8 percent.

NAI Hunneman was on the landord’s side in brokering their biggest pact of the quartet, that being 75,800 sf taken down by Tighe Logistics Group at 40 Robbie Rd., better than half the building’s 144,250-sf footprint and also a mile-

stone commitment bringing the structure dating to 1987 to 100 percent occupancy. Rob Byrne of Transwestern RBJ advised the tenant on the lease agreement.

Terms of the lease were not divulged, but a Q3 survey from Transwestern RBJ puts asking rents in its I-495 South survey at $5.85 per sf, a 12.1 percent gain over the same period in 2015. The review, indSTATus, is in line on vacancy with NAI Hunneman, albeit its result a few ticks higher to put the sampling of 17.8 mil-lion sf at 10.1 percent.

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BY MIKE HOBAN

NEWTON — The Society of Industri-al and Office Realtors’ New England Chapter held its annual Scholarship

Night at the Brae Burn Country Club, awarding academic grants to a pair of up-and-coming industry profession-als at a program that also marked a chang-ing of the SIOR guard, as Timothy Brodigan of Colliers Internation-al succeeded Chapter President Donald J. Mancini, the Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates principal completing his two-year term. Brodi-gan is joined in key lead-ership positions by new officers, those being MG Commercial Real Es-tate President Michael Giuttari (Vice Presi-dent); Katherine Wil-liams Kane, President of Williams ReloLogic and Maestro Consulting

(Treasurer); and George Paskalis, Senior VP at MG Commercial Real Estate (Secre-tary), their positions also two-year terms.

“Tim is a proven industry professional who is well-regarded by his peers in the brokerage profession,” Mancini said in

passing the torch to Brodigan, terming his successor “a top producer at Colliers International who has been very engaged with the chapter over the years, and has proven to be a great leader as well.I have

CAMBRIDGE — The Colliers Interna-tional Capital Mar-

kets group recently fa-cilitated the permanent financing of a boutique apartment property at One Whittemore St. in the city’s western flank. The $21.9 million loan from Principal Real Es-tate Investors retires floating rate construc-tion financing delivered two years ago last week from Cambridge Savings Bank which enabled the

borrower, Tyler Court LP, to develop the 67-unit property known as Linea Cam-

bridge completed in Q4 2015.Representing Principal’s borrower

were Colliers Senior VP Jeff Black and Associate Patrick Boyle. Tyler Court LP is

a wholly owned special purpose entity of the Fawcett family and is third-party man-aged by Nordblom Co. “We took the prop-



Colliers Finance TeamArranges $21.9M Loan

SIOR NE Names Officers, Award Winners

Jeff Black

Patrick Boyle


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no doubt Tim will be an excellent presi-dent.”

SIOR New England awarded the 2016 Robert W. Holmes SIOR Schol-arship to Colliers International Assistant VP Kevin Brawley. The Holmes scholarship, named after Robert Holmes, long-time SIOR member and founder of R.W. Holmes Realty in Natick, is given annually to the SIOR candidate “best exemplifying a commitment to the SIOR organization and has a consistent record of stellar pro-fessionalism as an office/industrial broker in the Greater Boston mar-ket.” According to Brodigan, “It was a tough decision, because we had a lot of applicants, but Kevin really stood out . . . he really fits the mold of what we are looking for at SIOR.”

The MIT Center for Real Estate (MIT-CRE) joined SIOR in awarding the Schol-

arship for Real Estate Excellence to Alfredo Keitaro Bando Hano, who worked as a broker with Colliers International in Mexico City before entering MITs Master of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED) program this autumn. The scholarship is awarded to an

MIT student “who shares the attributes that we look for in SIOR,” Brodigan told the gathering. Last year’s inaugural scholarship was granted to JLL alum Fernan-da Sánchez Attolini (also of Mexico City) who attend-ed this year’s event. The scholarship is the brainchild of Brodigan, Mancini and former SIOR chapter Presi-dent Jim Boudrot, as well as Steve Weikal, head of indus-try relations at the MITCRE, who viewed the scholarship as an initial step in forging an ongoing relationship.

“Steve, Don and I sat down following the initial ‘Real Disruption’ program (an MIT Center for Real Estate series dedicat-

ed to assessing how technology is impact-ing CRE), and discussed how SIOR and the MIT Center could collaborate,” Brod-igan tells Real Reporter. “And through these conversations, we started talking about the scholarship, and with the help

of Jim (Boudrot) we were able to set it up and grant our first schol-arship to Fernanda Sanchez last year and to Keitaro this year.”

The relationship between the organizations extends past the scholarship, as Weikal and MIT-CRE have lent their expertise on how new technologies are impact-ing commercial real estate to the last two SIOR Fall Conferences, with Weikal and MIT Center alum appearing as featured speakers. “This (relationship) is a good fit because there’s a common com-mitment to training leaders in the industry,” said Weikal. “SIOR’s mission is to bring professional-

ism and to train the next generation of in-dustry leaders, and that’s exactly what the MIT program does.” n

SIOR NE WinnersCONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

George Paskalis

Katherine Williams Kane

Alfredo Keitaro Bando Hano

Kevin Brawley

erty to market while in the final lease-up phase and were pleased to see the level of interest the debt market showed,” Black explains in a press release in calling the 25-yea, note with a fixed rate of just 3.41 percent “an important step in the family’s generational stewardship of the property.”

Built to the exacting LEED Platinum “gold standard” of sustainability construc-tion, the transit-oriented property has 59 market rate units and eight affordable apartments, the mixture including one-, two- and three-bedroom units as well as four-bedroom townhomes with private entrances and adorned by luxury finishes such as premier kitchens with black gran-ite countertops, in-suite laundry, private decks and video-screen intercoms.

“I appreciate the confidence the Fawcett family and their advisors at Nordblom Com-pany placed in our team,” says Black regard-ing the loan outcome. The debt industry vet-eran adds the developers helped their cause in creating a transit-oriented community, a product popular among lenders these days thanks to stronger performance numbers.

Located on the tree-lined spoke of Min-

uteman Bikeway known as Linear Park, the property is within walking distance of the Davis Square and Alewife MBTA Red Line stations which connect to Kendall Square

and downtown Boston. Enhancing the ac-cessibility are two bike garages and a bike repair station, although motorists are still accommodated via 67 parking spaces. n

One Whittemore St.CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

Linea Cambridge, 1 Whittemore St., Cambridge MA

the real reporter - mit€¦ · 2 the real reporter december 13, 2016 b oston — if there was one...

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