While incongruous to the long-term strategy laid out by Meritagefounder Andrew Nathan upon acquiring 18 Tremont St. in May 2005,observers say the flip makes sense as investors scramble to grab apiece of Boston's mini-boom. Sale prices of available buildings arenearly always being met, and often exceeded. Even at 92 years oldand considered a Class B property, 18 Tremont St. is expected togarner aggressive bidding. A similar asset a few blocks away, 45Milk St., just went under agreement to a client of Anglo Irish Bankfor about $34 million, or an astounding $478 per sf. Being brokeredby Cushman & Wakefield, the sale of that 71,000-sf,114-year-old building was reported last week by GlobeSt.com.

In acknowledging to GlobeSt.com that 18 Tremont St. is on theblock, Nathan concurs that the harvest is ahead of his firm's usualhold period of three to seven years. Working with ParadigmProperties as building manager and JLL's leasing group, Meritagewas able to employ its hands-on approach and turnaround programefficiently enough to move the process along quicker, explainsNathan, a fortuitous situation given the surge of capitalavailable.

"It was really a combination of us feeling we had successfullyexecuted our plan and the recovery of the Boston office market," hesays. "We just felt the timing was right."