Equity Acquires 278,000-SF Office for $54M

BURLINGTON, MA-Adding another large office property to its growing Boston-area portfolio, Equity Office Properties Trust has picked up a 277,647-sf sf six-story multi-tenant office building at 25 Mall Rd. here in a $54-million transaction with Prudential. The deal gives the new owners a prime piece of real estate near a one-million sf office park it already controls.

“We have an aggressive national plan where we invest in core products in core markets and this is a great example of that strategy coming to fruition,” Joseph Gorin, Equity’s vice president of investments, tells GlobeSt.com.

This acquisition, located on Route 128 about 12 miles from Boston, is near another Equity holding, New England Executive Park, a 10-building property set on 56 acres that has an occupancy rate in the mid-70s. “We consider it, and I think the market recognizes it, as the best asset in the Burlington market,” notes Gorin, adding that Equity was attracted to the property because of the “synergy” it brought to the trust’s other Burlington holding.

The asset’s acquisition was the latest in a buying spree by the Chicago-based REIT, which has been divesting of its assets in non-core areas and buying up properties in core markets like Boston, Washington, DC, New York City and San Francisco The trust has already sold $1.3 billion in assets this year and acquired $792.7 million in properties in core markets.