A huge office tower with hundreds of thousands of square feet of vacancy in the heart of downtown Boston is being taken over by a bank and brought to auction.
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Wells Fargo has moved to foreclose on 100 Summer St., a 32-story, 1.1M SF office tower owned by Rockpoint Group, documents posted Friday in deed records show.
The property is scheduled for an auction Oct. 20 with Sullivan & Sullivan Auctioneers, a listing on its website says.
Rockpoint and Wells Fargo declined to comment to Bisnow.
The auction listing, first reported by Banker & Tradesman, describes it as a "trophy" office tower and says it is 72% leased. The building was developed in 1980.
Deed records show Rockpoint Group paid $806M to acquire 100 Summer St. in 2019. Along with that acquisition, Wells Fargo provided Rockpoint with a $470M loan.
The property's latest assessment this year pegs its value at $425M.
The 2019 acquisition came after Nixon Peabody departed its 167K SF space in the building, relocating to 53 State St. Rockpoint had some success in bringing new tenants into the building, landing a 150K SF lease with SimpliSafe in 2021.
But the 100 Summer St. building website lists more than 330K SF as available now.
The auctioneer's marketing flyer is presenting this vacancy as an opportunity for an investor to add value, saying the building has "significant long-term investment potential."
The strategy of investing in major renovations has contributed to positive leasing momentum for several other 1980s-era office buildings in downtown Boston in recent years.
Synergy invested $20M in upgrades to the 101 Arch St. tower after buying it for $78M in 2024. It has since signed more than 220K SF of leases and refinanced the building for $92M, the Boston Business Journal reported earlier this month.
The One Post Office Square building was given a $300M overhaul that was completed in early 2023, and it signed big leases with Eaton Vance and Goulston & Storrs. The International Place complex landed major leases with KKR last year and other tenants this year after Chiofaro Cos. launched a $100M renovation.
But other aging buildings like 100 Summer St. have faced financial distress. Last year, the 1.1M SF One Lincoln office tower went to a foreclosure auction and sold to its lender for $400M, less than half the price Fortis Property Group paid for it in 2006.
Office vacancy in Boston's central business district is highest in Class-B and C buildings, which have 28.2% availability compared to 23.8% for Class-A buildings, according to CBRE. The higher-end class had 1M SF of positive net absorption through the first six months of this year, while the lower classes had 90K SF of negative absorption.
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