Hub Brokers Form Development Company

Three commercial brokers who pulled off one of the Bay State’s biggest real estate coups of the 1990s have launched a new development company. Eastern Development LLC will focus on office and retail ventures, including a high-profile project planned for Downtown Boston.

Brian Kelly, Daniel Doherty and Tom Maher announced this week that they are selling their former company, Atlantic Retail Properties, to two members of the Waltham-based firm’s management team, James Alex and Bryan Anderson. Doherty says the new firm will concentrate on building a portfolio of properties throughout the region.

“The Eastern United States, and New England in particular, has provided Brian, Tom and myself with a number of exciting challenges and opportunities,” says Doherty. “Our new company reflects our commitment to continuing in that tradition.”

Founded in 1991, Atlantic Retail Properties is now the largest retail brokerage firm in New England, transacting more than 20 million sf for retailers such as Home Depot, Target and Staples. The company’s biggest deal came in 1995 when Atlantic acquired the 1.2-million sf Wang Towers in Lowell for $535,000. Seen as a white elephant by many in the investment community, the three-building office complex was repositioned as a multi-tenanted facility and sold two years later for $108 million.

Atlantic also orchestrated the redevelopment of 745 Boylston St. in Boston’s Back Bay and bought the doomed Planet Hollywood building in the Hub earlier this year, converting it into office and retail space. The new company will attempt to salvage a foundering office/retail project in Boston’s Downtown Crossing shopping district. That complex will combine 150,000 sf of retail space at 350 Washington St. with a 31-story, 600,000-sf office building to be known as 33 Arch St.