211 Congress St. Goes on the Market This Week

A small but well-located office building in the city’s Financial District has been placed on the market for sale, with Insignia/ESG serving as brokers for 211 Congress St. The 11-story, 73,000-sf building comes with an asking price of $22 million.

“It’s a great little building,” says Insignia principal Lisa Campoli, who notes that the Bristol Group has undertaken an extensive renovation program since acquiring the property three years ago. Along with a refurbished lobby and common areas, the 80-year-old building’s façade was also recently restored.

Campoli says Insignia will begin marketing the property later this week. Among potential suitors, she predicts, will be foreign buyers, private opportunity vehicles and domestic pension funds. Along with solid upside in rental rates, with a number of leases rolling over, Campoli says the property’s location is also a strong positive factor. The building is in the Financial District, but is also just a few blocks away from the burgeoning Seaport District.

“It’s a gateway building,” says Campoli. “That end of Congress Street is really going to be the key connection between the Financial District and the waterfront.” It is also right in the path of a major fiber-optic corridor that could allow leasing of some of 211 Congress St. as telecommunications switch space. Indeed, the property located across the street, 230 Congress St., became one of the earliest switch hotels in the city during the mid-1990s.