New Owner Wants $24-Mil Purchase of 165,000-SF Office Building Kept Quiet

WESTWOOD, MA-Apparently, American Tower Corp. does not like to pay rent. Just two years after buying its headquarters building in Boston’s Back Bay, the telecommunications tower company has acquired the Westwood Business Centre from Equity Office Properties. ATC will use the 165,000-sf building for back office space, according to industry sources.

American did not return phone calls to discuss the matter; in fact, company officials want to keep the $24-million deal so secret that they instructed Equity and the brokers, Trammell Crow, not to identify them as the buyer. Nonetheless, sources say ATC is the new owner, and has hired Nordblom Management Co. of Burlington to run the property at 690 Canton St.

Equity gained control of the building as part of its acquisition of Beacon Properties Corp. in December 1997. Beacon paid $11.4 million for Westwood Business Centre in 1994. Brokers on the sale were Trammell Crow principals Robert E. Griffin Jr., Marci B. Griffith and Edward C. Maher Jr.