NYC-Based Brickman Buys Boston Office Building

BOSTON—Brickman Real Estate of New York City has acquired the 186 Lincoln St. office building here from Morris & Morse Co., Inc. in a transaction valued at $20.65 million.

The deal was announced by CBRE/New England, which represented the seller in the transaction and also advised Brickman in the financing of the transaction with Rockland Trust. No terms of the financing deal were released by CBRE in its announcement.

Boston-based Morris & Morse Co. acquired the 68,526-square-foot, nine-story office building in the South Station micro market in 2007 from a joint venture of Essex River Ventures LLC and the Praedium Group LLC for $12.9 million, according to a report in the Boston Business Journal. That transaction was also negotiated by CBRE/NE.

Currently, the building is 70% leased. Among its chief tenants include Roche Diagnostics, Full Contact and Greystone Solutions. Brokers involved in the deal say that the property should be able to further tap the demand for downtown Class B office space.

The CBRE/NE Capital Markets team involved in the transaction was led by Chris Angelone and assisted by team members John Meador, Bruce Lusa and Jessica Dowd. “We are pleased to have assisted the seller and procured the buyer in this sale,” states Angelone. “Morris and Morse has positioned 186 Lincoln exceptionally well to meet the demand in the marketplace. There is no question in our mind that the building will continue to flourish under Brickman's stewardship.”

CBRE/NE's Debt & Structured Finance Team secured acquisition financing for the asset on behalf of Brickman. CBRE/NE's Carlos Febres-Mazzei, Kyle Juszczyszyn, Alex Bradley and Taylor Shepard arranged the financing with Rockland Trust.

“186 Lincoln Street is a well-located asset in a rapidly emerging neighborhood,” states Brickman vice president Aaron Lazovik. “The property's construction is highly amenable to building space that caters to today's tenants and captures the momentum in the leasing market. Rockland's financing structure set up perfectly for our business plan.”

Boston's South Station micro market consists of approximately 1.3 million square feet of office space in 22 buildings, 85% of which is made up of Class B product, according to CBRE/NE. Average asking rents in South Station remain at a significant discount to neighboring submarkets. The overall Class B market reports a first quarter vacancy rate of approximately 6.5%, according to CBRE/NE statistics.