Suburban Offices Trade in Separate Transactions

German-based Taurus Investment Holdings LLC and Greenstreet Capital Partners of New York City, joint owners of 100 Newport Ave. in Quincy, sold the vacant landmark for $11.4 million to locally based Granite Telecommunications. The deal bought the new owner a four-story 126,419-sf office property just seven miles south of Boston in one of the region's premier submarkets.

"Due to its 100% occupancy, long-term stable cash flow and high-visibility along the Mass Pike, the bidding process for 1210-1230 Washington St. was extremely competitive," says Rick Putprush with Cushman & Wakefield's Capital Markets Group in Boston. He handled both transactions for the sellers along with colleagues Robert E. Griffin, Jr., Marci Griffith Loeber and Christopher T. Griffin. "There was approximately a dozen contenders and at the end of the day there was three, among whom it was difficult to pick a clear winner." It was a combination of price, terms and a prior relationship with the property's owner that gave the Davis Cos. the edge, however, Putprush says.

Initially constructed in the early 1900s and expanded twice in the 1970s and the mid-1980s, the property has easy access from Route 16. The Quincy property, which served as offices for Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Massachusetts for the past 13 years, was purchased at below replacement costs by Granite Telecommunications, according to Christopher Griffin.

Griffin says the property offers the new owner a location in a submarket that has seen decreasing vacancy rates, strengthening rental rates and sustained positive net absorption. The group was assisted in the Quincy deal by the firm's South Suburban market specialist JP Plunkett.