MEPT Trades Burlington Centre for $109M

BURLINGTON, MA-A joint venture of the Davis Cos. and Principal Real Estate Investors has acquired Burlington Centre, a 47-acre master-planned office campus here, from Multi-Employer Properties Trust. The four-building campus, which also includes a site for future development, traded for $109 million, somewhat exceeding the estimates of brokerage experts when MEPT put the property on the block this past spring.

TDC and Principal plan an extensive capital improvement and repositioning program on the 486,719-square-foot park, which is currently 77% leased. That compares to an average vacancy rate of 10% for the Burlington market. “Burlington is hot, it's the darling of Boston's suburbs,” Frank Petz, a managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle not involved with the sale, told the Boston Business Journal when MEPT put Burlington Centre up for sale in May after acquiring it in 1991 for $21.3 million.

“Burlington Centre is in one of the most dynamic submarkets in Greater Boston and represents an opportunity to acquire a very high quality complex with the potential to add value,” says Jon Frey, managing director of acquisitions at TDC. “We plan to invest capital and bring renewed energy to the campus. We have successfully acquired and repositioned office properties in Burlington before, and we know the market very well.”

The JV has retained CBRE/New England as exclusive leasing agent and engaged CBT Architects as the architect of record for implementing the capital improvement and repositioning strategies. Andy Majewski, Kerry Olson Hawkins and Jason Levendusky will spearhead CBRE/NE's efforts, while Haril Pandya and Maren Reepmeyer will do the same on CBT's behalf. Brian Collins will be the asset manager from TDC.