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After selling more than $1.5B of real estate last year, much of it in Greater Boston, life sciences giant Alexandria Real Estate Equities is buying again.
The REIT acquired a property on South Boston's fast-developing Dorchester Avenue corridor from F.W. Webb for $43M, according to deed records posted Tuesday and first reported by the Boston Business Journal.
The property at 307 Dorchester Ave. was a showroom and wholesale store for F.W. Webb, a supplier of plumbing, HVAC and other industrial products. The company this week opened a new showroom at 101 Hampden St. The sale of the Dorchester Avenue property comes after it had been in talks with Alexandria for years, the BBJ reported.
Alexandria hasn't revealed its plans for the site. Executive Chairman Joel Marcus declined to comment on the deal in an email to Bisnow.
If the life sciences giant moves forward with a project on the site, it would be the latest in a series of developments on the corridor. National Development, HYM Investment Group and Core Investments are all moving forward with plans for large-scale mixed-use projects on Dorchester Avenue.
Alexandria has slowed its construction pipeline and sold a host of assets over the last year in the face of weakening life sciences demand. Late last month, it sold properties in Cambridge and Waltham for a combined $306M. It also sold two South Boston sites last month for $87M, and it sold additional Boston-area properties last summer in separate deals totaling more than $600M.
The REIT's executives said on its last earnings call in October that they were doubling down on their strategy to sell underperforming properties and focus on concentrating assets in megacampuses. They are scheduled to provide an update on their strategy on an earnings call next week.
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