UPDATE: Normandy Acquires Saracen Portfolio for $140M

Seller RP Saracen Properties, a joint-venture between the New York City-based Rockpoint Group LLC and locally owned Saracen Properties, put the properties on the market in mid-December in a bid to capitalize on strong market conditions, Marci Griffith Loeber, with Cushman & Wakefield, tells GlobeSt.com. "We received a significant amount of interest." She says it drew bids from local, regional and national groups.

The acquisition, made on behalf of the Normandy Real Estate Fund LP, was the buyer's second in less than a month in the Route 128 submarket. The firm acquired a six-story, 115,000-sf office at 400 Fifth Ave. in March for $13.4 million. It also owns a 129,781-sf office at 150 Newport St. in Quincy.

Normandy's most recent acquisition includes Norfolk Place, a three-story office in Dedham; 7-57 Wells Ave., an 88,000-sf, three-story building at the Wells Avenue Office Park in Newton; and a 160,000-sf landmark building known as Dedham Place. As part of the transaction, Normandy also acquired the 270,000-sf Stony Brook office park in Waltham, which it sold to the national real estate investment group ING Clarion for $55 million. Both the Saracen acquisition and the Stony Brook sale closed simultaneously.

"We like the market. Fundamentally, we think it's very strong," Justin Krebs, a Normandy principal, tells GlobeSt.com. The firm acquired a 63%-leased portfolio combined with a renovation and leasing program begun by the seller. They anticipate to institute $7.5 million of capital improvements. "It supports our belief that key suburban office markets have turned the corner and have considerable room for rent growth as office demand accelerates due to strengthening employment fundamentals."

Krebs says in addition to rebranding and repositioning the properties, Normandy plans to acquire an additional one million sf in Boston over the next 18 to 24 months. Robert Griffin, with Cushman & Wakefield, tells GlobeSt.com that the acquisition represents "good timing" on Normandy's part since Boston's suburban office market is in the midst of a strong recovery. "That's the hottest part of the market," says Griffin, who along with colleague Ed Maher and Griffith Loeber, marketed the properties on behalf of the seller. Normandy was self-represented.