MEDFORD, MA-A 105,000-sf office building among the first developed in Boston's “inner suburbs” has changed hands to a client of Morris & Morse. The investment advisory group will take control of 10 Cabot Rd. for $16.9 million on behalf of Quincy Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Quincy. The seller was Medwell Associates, an affiliate of Capital Properties, the New York City firm that had owned the asset since 1997.

“We had a very good response,” CBRE/New England principal Gary Lemire tells GlobeSt.com of investor interest for the building. Lemire, who orchestrated the deal on a team including CBRE principal William Moylan and Matt Pullen, says suitors were lured by the stabilized position of 10 Cabot Rd., which was 95% occupied at the time of sale. “It has an excellent tenant roster,” says Lemire, citing the long-term ownership for playing a role in that aspect as well as a location adjacent to a major transportation center leading into Downtown Boston. That transit facility itself was listed as a key driver when 10 Cabot Rd. was constructed in the late 1980s as part of the 36-acre Wellington Business Center.

The surroundings have matured to an even greater degree since that point, both in terms of better transportation and the breadth of available office space and amenities. Despite its share of fits and starts, Wellington has again emerged as a viable alternative to escalating rents in Boston and Cambridge. The transit-oriented development movement is now in full force around Wellington Circle, prompting new residential and retail construction in the past three years. “We like the area a lot,” says Morris & Morse principal Garlan Morse. “It's a lot more humanized than it used to be.”

As a veteran of the Greater Boston commercial real estate lending community, Morse recalls the days when Wellington was considered a pioneering market for business purposes. Infrastructure changes by local and state officials have helped, he says, as has the arrival of new ventures such as the residential/retail complex known as Station Landing. “People really want to be there today,” says Morse, whose Boston-based firm secured the building through Quincy Medford LLC.

Morse reports that 10 Cabot Rd. has also withstood the test of time. While not new, the building has many modern elements, he says, including high ceilings and a grand interior stairway that provides interaction among occupants. The building lineup features such entities as FedEx and Verizon, firms with solid credit, Morse notes, while the building rollover is measured, providing steady income for the new ownership for an extended period. “It's really a core investment,” Morse says, although Quincy Medford LLC will make some improvements such as sprucing up the parking lot.