"They are very interested in it," one source tells GlobeSt.com,a notion supported by other commercial real estate professionals.One market watcher offered a supposed price of about $360,000 perunit, or approximately $68 million, although that figure was notconfirmed by parties involved in the talks. The property is beinghandled for Archstone Smith by Cushman & Wakefield's CapitalMarkets Group, but members of that investment sales team refusedcomment on the matter, even declining to say whether the asset ison the market. Sources, however, insist that not only isArchstone-Smith peddling 2000 Commonwealth Ave., but that BC isactively chasing the opportunity. Rumors of a deal between the twoentities have been circulating in the community for the pastweek.

Towering high above surrounding structures, 2000 CommonwealthAve. has been a local lightning rod since well-known developerJerome Rappaport muscled the project through permitting in themid-1980s, despite fierce opposition from the community. Rappaportsurvived a last-minute bid to stop construction by then-MayorRaymond Flynn and former Boston City Councilor Brian McLaughlin onbehalf of his Allston-Brighton constituents, with the buildingfinally completed in 1985.

Efforts to contact officials at Archstone-Smith and BostonCollege by press deadline were unsuccessful. The Englewood,CO-based REIT has owned 2000 Commonwealth Ave. since merging withCharles E. Smith Co., the firm which paid $27.5 million for theproperty in 1997. That sale had followed a failed attempt in 1992by BC to acquire 2000 Commonwealth Ave., an effort that drewcriticism for both its implications of expansion in theneighborhood and the school's secretive nature while pursuing theinvestment.