Speculative Office Building Underway on West Park Drive

WESTBOROUGH, MA-Building construction is underway on 900 West Park Drive here, a 193,000 sf speculative office development. The four-story structure, being developed by Texas-based Archon Group is located in Westborough Office Park.

“It’s gotten difficult to build anything around Route 128,” says Mark Clayton principal in charge of development at Trammell Crow Co., which is providing construction management and leasing services for the building. “People are moving to Route 495 because it has more attractive rents and more flexibility with growth.”

The high office rental rates in Downtown Boston and Route 128 have made MetroWest suburban communities appealing to developers, although rates in the Westborough area have begun to creep above $30 per sf. The location of this office park, near Routes 9 and 495 and Interstate 90 as well as within a 60-mile radius of major areas such as Springfield, Portsmouth, Providence and Boston also makes it easier to recruit employees. “Recruiting is the key issue these days and ten miles on 128 could take you forever,” says Clayton. “Sixty miles on 495 is straight drivetime.”

The building will be designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, with all the amenities tenants–especially high-tech companies–are looking for such as fiber optics, an open floor plan designed for modular furniture, on-site dining facilities and nine-ft high window lines. Completion is scheduled for next July.

This is the first of the four buildings Archon bought three years ago to be developed. The buildings total 450,000 sf of class A space. The Westborough Office Park master plan can support up to 1.4 million sf of office and related construction.

Archon Group is a diversified international real estate services and investment advisory company founded by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.