This Week's Boston Deal Sheet
International consulting firm McKinsey & Co. signed a 95K SF lease in Millennium Partners’ Winthrop Center mixed-use tower.
For McKinsey, public transportation was a big factor in its decision-making process, and it looked at spots near North and South station, the Boston Business Journal reported. MP Boston principal Joe Larkin, in an interview with Bisnow, cited the new amenities and the tower’s commitment to sustainability as strong drivers for the tower's recent tenants.
“Winthrop Center is really a place where amenities just abound, the collaboration thrives and workers feel connected to a responsibility for each other [and] the city in the larger community," Larkin told Bisnow. "They really want to create an environment that's really responsive to these needs of sustainability."
McKinsey has two offices in Greater Boston: a 37K SF office in the Atlantic Wharf building on Congress Street and a 50K SF location in Hobbs Brook Office Park at 404 Wyman St. in Waltham. The company plans to consolidate both offices into the two-floor space at Winthrop Center.
The 53-story tower, set to open in late 2023, includes 800K SF of office space and 300 luxury condos. The office tower has two other tenants: Cambridge Associates, which signed a 15-year, 115K SF lease in February, and Income Research + Management, which signed a 39K SF lease in May. The project has just over 400K SF of office space still available to lease, according to Larkin.
SALES
D.C.-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group sold its life sciences property in Cambridge to GI Partners for $151M. The property, known as the Blackstone Science Square, is a four-story, 78K SF building located at 233-249 Putnam Ave. and 13-23 Blackstone St., according to the Boston Business Journal. Carlyle acquired the property in 2019 for $80M.
The building's tenants include Strand Therapeutics and HiFiBiO Therapeutics. GI Partners has been active in the life sciences industry, buying the 497K SF property at 451 D St. in South Boston in June, as well as two properties set for office-to-lab conversions in Fort Point and Burlington.
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Neighborhood Property Group acquired a 500-space, 149K SF parking garage on Beach Street in Chinatown for $32M, Banker & Tradesman reported. The property also includes 4,338 SF of fully leased, ground-floor retail space. South Shore-based Foxrock, the seller in the deal, had acquired the garage for $33.5M in 2017, according to B&T.
The buyer secured a $19.6M loan from HarborOne Bank, with JLL’s Greg LaBine and Amy Lousararian representing the borrower, JLL announced. Neighborhood Property Group is a partnership between REEF Technology and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management.
FINANCING
The developer of the Boynton Gateway biotech campus in Somerville received a $278M construction loan from Brookfield Asset Management. CV Properties, Cannon Hill Capital Partners and L&B Realty Advisors partnered on the 334K SF project. JLL’s Anthony Cutone and Henry Schaffer sourced the loan.
Boynton Gateway is set to be completed in Q3 of 2024. The development sits next door to the 1.35M SF Boynton Yards life sciences project. It is also near the 2.4M SF Union Square master-planned development.
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Crosspoint, the developer of the 143K SF Newton Nexus shopping center, has recapitalized the project. The developer sold a majority stake in the property to Long Wharf Capital LLC, Crosspoint announced Monday. It didn't disclose the price. Newmark’s Robert Griffin, Geoffrey Millerd, Jonathan Martin and Paul Penman represented Crosspoint in the deal.
The shopping center is fully leased with 13 tenants, including a Stop & Shop anchor and two TJX concepts: T.J. Maxx and Sierra Trading Post. The project, a redevelopment of two former office buildings, broke ground in 2016, and the Stop & Shop opened in 2018.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Tremont Asset Management filed plans with the Boston Planning & Development Agency for a 19-story tower in the Fenway neighborhood, the Banker & Tradesman reported. The project, featuring a 14-story addition to an existing five-story building at 409 Huntington Ave., would include 157 units.
The proposal is subject to Mayor Michelle Wu and the BPDA's new policy requesting applicants disclose the diversity of their project teams. In the project notification form filed last week, the development firm said it was a majority woman-owned firm that was in the process of obtaining a WBE certification. The project will also include other women- and minority-owned firms like Park Property management, law firm Prince Lobel & Tye, Niche Engineering and Sustainability Consulting.
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The owner of popular Cambridge music venue The Middle East filed plans for the demolition of the building for a new hotel. The plans include a 54K SF six-story hotel with a 4K SF music venue that might remain as the “Middle East.”
The project will also include ground-floor retail, a restaurant and a bar with a deck on the sixth floor of the hotel. The Sater family, which acquired the Middle East building in 2014, also owns the adjacent buildings featuring The Zuzu and Sonia and plans to demolish them as part of the project.
