Set on 12.6 acres adjacent to the 367-room Sheraton Ferncroft Hotel and Ferncroft Country Club & Golf Resort, the property drew a number of other interested bidders. However, it was Behringer Harvard's prior association with seller Middleton Investors LLC and Harvard Property Trust LLC, along with the firm's reputation for closing the deal, that won the buyer title to the property, Jason Mattox, an executive vice president with Behringer Harvard, tells GlobeSt.com.

"Boston has all the right macro trends for long term investment, or even value added investment like this was," says Mattox. "We think Boston is uniquely positioned to see growth and continued attraction by high caliber tenants like Verizon."

Located just off the junction of Route 1 and Interstate 95, and the property is 82% leased by tenants that include Verizon Information Services, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications, and the SAS Institute, a privately held software firm.

Mattox says the transaction provided the opportunity for Behringer Harvard to acquire a value-added property that would give the firm a solid entry into the Boston market and open the door to future investment opportunities in the area.

"Boston is a very intriguing market to us and we're certainly looking for other opportunities," he says. "Hopefully, this will be the first of many." Constructed in 1990 for Verizon, the 25 Village Rd. property was acquired for $18.9 million two years ago by Berwind Property Group Ltd., a Philadelphia REIT, under a sale-leaseback transaction on behalf of a separate fund called the BPG Co-Investment Partnership LP.

Seller Middleton Investors LLC was represented in the transaction by James F. McCaffrey of The Trammell Crow Co.'s Boston office.