Harvard makes moves to fill empty Allston spaces

Harvard University is making good on promises to an Allston neighborhood blighted by vacant university properties, and is now moving to lease the long-empty commercial spaces.

This past summer Harvard University, in response to meetings with residents and community leaders, began painting and upgrading commercial property it owns in the Allston neighborhood just west of Barry's Corner. Harvard is marketing eight buildings with about 135,000 square feet of office space. The university hired Jones Lang LaSalle to market at least three of the eight properties located at 1320 and 1380 Soldiers Field Road, as well as 415 Western Ave.

There are currently 84,000 square feet of leases being negotiated, according to Lauren Marshall, a university spokeswoman who did not specify which of the eight buildings tenants were considering.

Harvard owns 30 buildings, totaling 774,000 square feet, that are not included in the university's massive institutional master plan to create a new campus on 215 acres of land.

Until now, the university had let the commercial property sit idle, doing little to nothing to lease the buildings. The lack of a long-term plan for the properties made it difficult for business owners to determine whether to lease space in a neighborhood that appeared to be in flux.

After talking with the affected neighborhood all summer, Harvard agreed to sign five- to 10-year leases with businesses, said Kathy Spiegelman, Harvard's chief planner for Allston. Spiegelman said the neighborhood was concerned there was "nothing going on" with the properties, which was eroding the neighborhood's character as result.

"We've gotten more aggressive about the leasing," said Spiegelman. "We didn't want them empty."

Spiegelman said the university developed a more aggressive leasing strategy in the last nine to 12 months and held open houses to advertise the space to real estate brokers. Spiegelman declined to provide information about tenants currently considering leasing space in Allston because "we don't like to talk about deals until the deal is done."

However, Gian Starita, a vice president with Lincoln Property Co., represented Mount Auburn Cambridge Independent Practice Association Inc. (MACIPA) in its recent 10-year lease with Harvard. The company will move from 1340 Soldiers Field Road into 10,000 square feet at 1380 Soldiers Field Road. The building at 1380 Soldiers Field Road was originally built in 2000 for Cambridgeport Savings Bank.

Starita said MACIPA looked at a dozen buildings before deciding to lease space at 1380 Soldiers Field Road.

Starita believes the neighborhood was pleased with the university's efforts. "They've just (been) met with tremendous success."

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source: bizjournals.com

Baltimore 'fits' firm's plans

Coldwell Banker Commercial, a Parsippany, N.J., commercial real estate brokerage, expects to beef up its presence in the Baltimore region. The firm is considering acquiring other real estate firms already in the area as part of a national push into more large markets.

"Baltimore is a tremendous city," Coldwell Banker Commercial President and COO Richard W. Davidson said. "Baltimore fits perfectly with our growth strategy."

Davidson, himself a former broker in the Baltimore area, spent Nov. 29 meeting with his firm's regional brokers during a conference at the BWI Airport Marriott. During an interview before the start of the conference, Davidson said he hopes to assist the company's local offices in increasing their presence in the region, an effort which will include both mergers and acquisitions as well as the hiring and training of new brokers. He said at least one deal is in the works. He declined to give specifics.

Nationally, Davidson said, the commercial real estate market has been hit, but not substantially by the problems surrounding the commercial lending markets. He expects buyers will shift away from second- and third-tier buildings, however, and that many of the real estate sales in the near future will be driven by institutional buyers without a need for outside financing.
County apartments sell for $15M

The Berkshire Group, a Boston-based property management company, has paid about $15 million for a Windsor Mill apartment complex at Rolling Road and Church Lane in Baltimore County, according to the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation.

The company bought the Cedar Gardens development in August from Cedar Garden Associates, a group registered to New Jersey real estate investor Peter Weidhorn.

Berkshire -- which owns several other housing units in the Baltimore region, including the Berkshires of Columbia -- has launched a $3.2 million renovation of the apartment units.
Bozzuto trims business unit

Greenbelt developer Bozzuto Group has reached a deal to sell its Bozzuto Landscaping division to competing landscaper, Brickman Group Ltd. of Gaithersburg, for an undisclosed price.

The deal, slated to close Dec. 31, comes just about two decades after Bozzuto bought the unit from Tom Davis in 1989. Davis, who stayed on as president of the landscaping arm under Bozzuto, and his staff have agreed to join Brickman's regional operations once the transition is completed.

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source: bizjournals.com

Under Armour plots city expansion

Under Armour Inc., one of Baltimore's fastest-growing companies, plans to nearly double its local labor force within the next four years as part of a massive expansion near its Tide Point headquarters in South Baltimore.

The publicly traded sports apparel firm is expected to grow from 450 employees to about 800 and lease about 140,000 square feet at 1450 Beason St. from its Tide Point landlord, Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc., according to documents obtained by the Baltimore Business Journal.

The Baltimore developer plans to spend about $14 million to renovate Overflo Public Warehouse Inc.'s property near the extension of Key Highway in the city's Locust Point neighborhood, according to documents filed Nov. 26 with Baltimore City's Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals.

The expansion would give Under Armour, one of the sporting goods industry's strongest brands, about 140,000 square feet of additional office, warehouse and retail space, including a planned 7,000-square-foot factory outlet store geared primarily for its employees, according to the city's zoning documents.

It also would be one of the largest corporate expansions to take place in Baltimore within the past five years and would be another coup for Struever Bros., which recently teamed with H&S Properties Development Corp. to sign financial giant Morgan Stanley to 130,000 square feet at the planned Harbor Point development.

Struever Bros. Senior Development Director Amy Bonitz Palmer told members of the Locust Point Civic Association Dec. 5 that the developer has a contract to buy the land from Overflo for an undisclosed price. The property is assessed at $4.1 million, according to state tax data.

Palmer said Under Armour hopes to move into its new space by April to meet its rapid growth. Under Armour would lease the property for a six-year term, she said.

The warehouse space has enough room for 345 desks, expected to be filled during the next three or four years. Palmer also said the move is viewed as an interim step for Under Armour, which is in the process of forming a long-range plan to build a larger campus for itself in Baltimore.

"They are a very fast-growing company, and they need expansion space from us over the next nine months to meet their expansion goals as a company," Palmer said.

Under Armour ranked fifth on the Baltimore Business Journal's 2007 List of fastest-growing public companies in the region based upon year-over-year revenue growth. It ranked 17th among the region's largest publicly held companies, with revenue of about $431 million in fiscal 2006.

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source: bizjournals.com

R.E. firm ready to amass $150M fund

Two former principals with Cypress Real Estate Advisors have formed a new real estate firm with plans to raise $150 million in investment capital early next year. The strategy is to invest the money in Sunbelt cities.

Kenneth Aboussie and John Kiltz are launching Stonelake Capital Partners to invest in urban multifamily and mixed-use properties from Arizona to Florida. The two real estate pros both spent the last four years as partners with private equity firm Cypress, where Aboussie directed capital markets activities and the firm's Mexico business and Kiltz oversaw U.S. acquisitions.

Kiltz says Stonelake will raise the money from pension funds and other institutional investors.

"Based on the track record of investing we've done and the returns we've been able to achieve for Cypress investors, we think that performance will attract institutional capital," says Kiltz. "And it's a good time to begin the process, in our opinion."

The company will start by investing in the primary Texas markets where job growth is high, eventually moving into other Sunbelt cities.

"The Sunbelt is going to continue to have good job-creation fundamentals and good in-migration as people continue to move south from up north," says Kiltz. He also sees plenty of opportunity in core markets for redeveloping aging urban infill properties with a new purpose.

Travis Eickenhorst, also formerly with Cypress, has joined Stonelake as a vice president.

Kiltz estimates the initial team will number about five to seven, with growth beyond that as the firm expands its portfolio.

During Aboussie and Kiltz's tenure, Cypress invested in a number of local projects such as downtown's Block 19, where Compass Learning built its new headquarters and where the The Austonian condo tower is now being constructed.

Cypress also handled the property on the northwest corner of Sixth Street and West Avenue, where The Lofts on Shoal Creek is currently going up.

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source: bizjournals.com

ASA lands headquarters at Hartsfield hangar

Atlantic Southeast Airlines Inc. (ASA) is moving its headquarters into a hangar at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The move will put the regional carrier -- which operates regional jets for Delta Air Lines Inc.'s "Connection" service-- into the 203,000-square-foot North Hangar, with 17 acres of adjacent land and 1,400 parking spaces for its staff.

The hangar will also give the carrier room to grow its employee base and maintenance operations, as needed.

At least 100 administrative workers will be relocated from Macon to the new facility, said Lisa Walker, ASA's vice president of customer service and head of the airline's real estate.

She said the 25-year lease with the airport "shows our commitment to Atlanta."

ASA has been based in Atlanta for 26 years, said Walker.

The airline is owned by St. George, Utah-based SkyWest Inc. (Nasdaq: SKYW) and has a fleet of 159 mostly Bombardier regional jets that fly from 50 to 70 passengers.

One hundred percent of its operations support Delta's (NYSE: DAL) regional routes, said Walker.

ASA routes connect Atlanta to Guadalajara, Mexico, and Montreal, plus all points between, from the Eastern seaboard to the Midwest.

All told, the airline has about 800 flights a day out of Hartsfield and more than 4,000 employees, most in Atlanta. Four hundred employees will move into the new headquarters.

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source: bizjournals.com