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Alexandria Real Estate Closes on Boston Metro R&D Office Portfolio

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Commercial real estate services group Newmark recently announced that it had completed the sale of eight premier office campus assets in Andover, Mass., for a total of $341 million. The properties are located within Minuteman Park, a highly amenitized development that is conveniently located directly off Interstate 93, five miles south of the New Hampshire border and 25 miles north of Boston.

Atlantic Management and Spear Street Capital were the two separate sellers in the transaction. According to public records, the buyer was Alexandria Real Estate Equities (AREE).

Newmark Co-Head of U.S. Capital Markets, Robert Griffin; Vice Chairman, Edward Maher; Executive Managing Director, Matthew Pullen; and Managing Director, Samantha Hallowell, of Newmark’s Boston Capital Markets Group procured a single campus assemblage buyer and represented the sellers in separate transactions for their respective assets.

Financial analysis support was provided by Newmark Senior Financial Analyst, William Sleeper. Torin Taylor, executive managing director with the company, will be the exclusive leasing agent for the campus.

Biotech & Lab Space Demand Drives Flurry of Investment in Office-to-Lab Conversion

The life-science focused investor also recently purchased Charles Park, which it expects to redevelop into 400,000 square feet of R&D and lab-ready Boston office space by early 2023.

This Andover acquisition encompasses 1.3 million square feet of existing office, R&D and laboratory space across the eight buildings that changed hands. Additionally, the deal secured the buyer’s ability to develop new, state-of-the-art biomanufacturing space on-site.

Minuteman Park features a recently modernized amenity center with a full-service cafeteria, game room/lounge, coffee kiosk, fitness center with locker rooms, and indoor bicycle storage. On-site amenities also include an open-air pavilion and running and cycling trails.

Spear Street Capital received $151 million for its four office assets that account for half of the square footage in the deal — 30, 100 and 200 Minuteman Road, as well as 138 River Road.

The 109-acre property at 3000 Minuteman Road includes four LEED-certified buildings that incorporate roughly 650,000 square feet. According to CommercialEdge data, it last traded in 2019, when Philips shed its then-headquarters in a sale-leaseback deal worth $36 million. Atlantic Management just sold it for $190 million.

“These assets together form an exceptional assemblage opportunity, enabling new ownership to accommodate various tenant requirements with a variety of building layouts and floor plate sizes,” Pullen said. “Additionally, the development potential presents an attractive opportunity to increase density in a premier Boston suburb.”

3000 Minuteman Road in the greater Boston submarket of Andover, MA (property image courtesy of CommercialEdge)

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