Davis Cos. Leases 94K SF at Ferncroft

MIDDLETON, MA-Boston-based the Davis Cos. has signed lease agreements totaling approximately 94,000 square feet at Ferncroft Corporate Center here, part of the 128 North submarket of Boston. TDC has signed a lease with Appleseed's Brands for more than 43,000 square feet, and renewed existing tenant SAS Institute Inc. for more than 50,000 square feet.  The Appleseed's Brands addition brings the property to 85% leased.

Torin Tylor, executive director with Cushman & Wakefield, represented TDC. Ted Lyon, senior managing director and principal at Cassidy Turley, represented Appleseed's Brands. Lease terms were not disclosed.

Originally built in 1990, the 226,338-square-foot Ferncroft Corporate Center once served as a regional corporate office for Verizon, which occupied the entire premises. In addition to Appleseed's, the current anchor tenants are SAS Institute and SuperMedia Services-East Inc., a former Verizon subsidiary that occupies approximately 41,600 square feet.

TDC acquired the property in 2011 for $15.3 million, or 43% less than what then-owner Berhringer Harvard paid in 2006, according to published reports. TDC has since made capital improvements, including a new conference center, a renovated and expanded fitness center with changing rooms and showers, a renovated cafeteria with a large seating area and a renovated main lobby, bathrooms and elevator lobby areas.

In a release, Duncan A.C. Gilkey, SVP—leasing and asset management with TDC, calls Appleseed's “a great addition, with an impressive management team led by Garth Greenier, president of Appleseed's Brands. Greenier and his colleagues recognized the importance of the intrinsic quality of the building and the capital improvements we made to the property over the past year to his employees, who were his number one priority.”