Office Building Sells for $11.5M

A client advised by LaSalle Investment Management sold the property to a partnership led by the Cresset Group along with partners Hennessey Enterprises and Rye Development. Elizabeth Carrillo Thomas and Philip Giunta of CB Richard Ellis/Whittier Partners represented the seller and procured the buyer.

The transaction included the restructuring of a lease with the existing tenant, GiantLoop, which Thomas tells GlobeSt.com, used to lease the entire building. As part of the transaction Giant Loop reduced its lease to two floors or about half of the building. Cresset Group brought in the other tenants of the building--Ski Market, IM Logic and Summit Services--during the transaction. The building is now about 90% leased.

"Cresset now has diversified tenancy and has improved the overall ownership risk with this roster of tenants," says Thomas, senior vice president of CB Richard Ellis's Investment Properties Group.

The building is located at the heart of the Route 128 technology corridor. "The sale of 265 Winter St. underscores the continued confidence of investors in the long term viability of Waltham as an office location," says Thomas.

Thomas points out that while in the last few years there has been a softening in all Greater Boston markets, investors have always demonstrated that Waltham is a "suburb of choice. The appeal is always there." Thomas points out that the essential fundamentals of the city, including its central location, its diverse tenant base and its access to a pool of well educated workers, have always remained, despite its recent high vacancies. According to Grubb & Ellis's most recent statistics, the area's vacancy rate is about 20%.