A development and investment firm whose local roots date back to 1909, H.N. Gorin has a diverse portfolio of industrial, multifamily, office and retail space. The company sold Brickman two Boston buildings in 2006 that had been renovated into retail and office space. In the Government Center district, H.N. Gorin harvested One Bowdoin Sq. for $41 million after paying $32 million for the 132,000-sf office building in 1999, then subsequently sold Brickman 55 Summer St. in the Downtown Crossing district. The latter asset had been owned by Gorin since 1999, and had an adventurous spate that ended positively by the arrival of a large CVS pharmacy to anchor the 125,000-sf property. Gorin sold 55 Summer St. to Brickman a year ago for $37.2 million.
The Cambridge building just now changing hands had been acquired in December 2002 following a brief ownership by Paradigm Properties and the Carlyle Group. That partnership had purchased the building in December 1999 for $17.3 million before abruptly selling to Gorin a few years later. At an impressive $375 per sf, the sale price to Brickman is double what Paradigm paid less than 10 years ago, reflecting both a stronger market and a series of improvements made to the asset. According to one account, rents in the building are in the $40-per-sf range, healthy for Cambridge, especially given the fringe location between Central and Harvard Squares.
Calls to Brickman and Gorin's asset manager, Kristian Gibson, were not returned by press deadline, but sources insist the sale has been consummated. Equally unresponsive were investment brokers at the Boston office of Eastdil Secured, the real estate services firm said to have negotiated the agreement. Eastdil is also handling the disposition of the CrossPoint Towers in Lowell, among suburban Boston's leading office parks and one about to fetch $175 million. Eastdil's Boston team participated in the recent sale of the Prospect Hill Office Park in Waltham as well, with DivcoWest buying the three-building complex for a price approaching $115 million. The firm is also broker for 50 Milk St., a class A tower in Boston's Financial District that recently went on the block.
H.N. Gorin made a splash earlier this year in purchasing the former headquarters of Reebok Corp. in Stoughton. The 197,000-sf building known as 100 Technology Center Dr. traded for $45.5 million, and is fully leased to a credit tenant. Brickman has been an active buyer in Greater Boston, but made big news this summer when it confirmed a large swath of assets were being marketed as part of a multi-state portfolio sale. Even a property the firm had just secured, Boston's 40 Court St., was thrown into the mix. According to one observer, it is no surprise Brickman would continue to accrue assets. "That's what they do," says the source, an investor familiar with the 955 Massachusetts Ave. sale who further opines that the deal reflects Brickman as being "big believers" of Cambridge.
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