"We're pretty happy about it," relays Howland Associate KenOppenheim, who represented the landlord in-house with companyprincipal William Yetman. Gary Finlayson was agent for PremiumPower, which markets energy storage systems. Headquartered in NorthAndover, the firm will occupy about 90% of the 60,000-sf NorthReading building. The agreement also paved the way for an 8,000-sflease at Howland's 155 West St. in Wilmington to accommodate aprevious occupant of 87 Concord St.

The northern sector of Boston's flex/R&D market hasundergone dramatic swings this decade, including a brutal stretchfrom 2001 to 2005, but Oppenheim says Howland enjoyed a brisk 2007."Things are going well," Oppenheim tells GlobeSt.com, as evidencedby the firm's leasing of all but a few thousand sf in its 1.5million-sf portfolio. The velocity is credited partly to expandingtechnologies and emerging companies such as Premium Power, whichhas filled multiple locations locally since its founding in2002.

The North flex/R&D submarket apparently saved its best forthe home stretch, with Jones Lang LaSalle estimating 107,000 sf ofpositive net absorption in the fourth quarter, enough to put thesubmarket of 6.5 million sf slightly on the plus side for 2007. Thevacancy rate dipped to 15.1%, keeping it better than the overallsuburban average of 18.3% for 40.7 million sf tracked by JLL.