The Deal Sheet
One of very few women to make it to the top echelon of Boston commercial real estate, Leslie Cohen, has been appointed a partner at Samuels & Associates, a major force transforming the Fenway with a $2.3B investment. (Do you want that in singles or nickels?)
Essential in her advancement has been her mentor and immediate boss at Samuels, prez Joel Sklar. For problem solving and idea generation, “it’s critical” to have a sounding board, she says. She’s also guided by the “lean in” principle. Often the only woman at the table, she “participates” and isn’t intimidated at meetings. Being confident is “baked in,” she tells us, from being one of the rare women in Tufts engineering program. (We're always trying to bake confidence into things, but our oven cooks unevenly.) Earlier, her parents told her she could do anything. These days, she’s also raising two sons ages 7 and 9 with the help of her very supportive husband, Dr. Dean Cohen.
During her 13 years at the company—she started as a project manager—the $170M mixed-use development at Barry’s Corner in Allston that she’s now leading is one of the most interesting, she says. The building designed by Elkus Manfredi (rendering above) with 325 apartments and 35k SF of retail (due for completion August ’15) is going to pave the way for the development of the Allston campus Harvard has long sought.
Sales
National Real Estate Advisors sold The Residences at Munroe Place in Quincy, which it purchased for $4.2M in ’02, to a private investor for $35.3M. JLL’s Travis D’Amato, Michael Coyne, Kevin Gleason and Brendan Shields repped the seller. Part of its attraction, they say, is that the 111-unit building with underground parking sits next to the T-stop.
Boston India Realty paid 679 Worcester Road Trust $2.7M for 679 Worcester Rd in Natick, a Class-A office on Rt 9. R.W. Holmes Realty’s Craig Johnston and Garry R. Holmes repped the seller and found the buyer.
Construction & Development
Conroy Development won a green light from the city to build a $230M, 480k SF mixed-use complex on Parcel K at the Seaport with 304 residences (including microunits), 40 affordables, a 247-key hotel, 12k SF of incubator office space, 18k SF of restaurants and retail and parking for 640 cars in an underground garage.
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Forget the hotel and residences it had planned, instead New England Development will build a $150M, 379k SF office on Pier 4 at the Seaport designed by Elkus Manfredi. Public benefits will include a waterfront park and plaza, a new segment of the Harborwalk, a 20k SF civic space, and cash contributions to support water transportation.
The Chinese Economic Development Council broke ground yesterday on a $26.7M, 67-unit affordable housing development on Oxford Street in Chinatown. The City via Mayor Walsh (5th from left) chipped in $5.5M of the cost.
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The Boston Housing Authority has completed the $66.7M energy efficient rehab of 13 public housing properties, which includes a first-in-the-nation Project Labor Agreement that offers BHA residents a chance to get into careers in the building trades through the Building Pathways Program. The contractor was Ameresco.
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The City of Pittsfield, New England Expansion Strategies and the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority will build a nearly $10M Berkshire Innovation Center to spur the growth of small- to medium-size manufacturing companies in Western Mass. Yesterday the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center announced its $9.7M in financing for the project.
Leasing
Mercury Systems leased an additional 28k SF at 267 Lowell Rd in Hudson, New Hampshire owned by Campanelli. (Campanelli's Jeff DeMarco and Ralph Perelis bookend Mercury's Ed Vowles.) Transwestern RBJ’s Jamey Lipscomb and John Wilson repped the tenants; Cushman & Wakefield’s Thomas Farrelly, Denis Dancoes, and Sue Ann Johnson repped Campanelli.
Caffè Nero, which has 600 locations in Europe, opened its first US store—at Millennium Place. The 2,400 SF has been converted into a continental coffee house experience.
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Merrill Lynch leased an additional 1,000 SF of office space at 500 Cummings Center in Beverly for a total of 5,500 SF. Landlord Cummings Properties’ senior account manager Mike Farrell managed the expansion.
Assignments
The Mount Vernon Co hired Boston Realty Advisors to sell its three-building, 284-apartment Green District portfolio in Allston. The newly built residences may well bring $150M, says BRA partner Chris Sower who will market the portfolio with Jason Weissman, Andrew Herald, Jennifer Price and Kristy Ganong. The first two buildings to open are 100% occupied. The third, the Eco (above), is under construction with completion slated for September and is already 43% leased.
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WinnCompanies' residential arm will manage the 66-unit Sitkowski School Apartments in Webster now being developed by Neighborhood of Affordable Housing as affordable apartments for seniors.
