Archon Group Closes on $129M Cambridge Buy

CAMBRIDGE, MA-Switching its ownership focus from a fringe office district in Boston to this city’s western flank, the Archon Group LP has purchased two buildings and a land parcel from J.P. Morgan Investment Management Co. Supported by a $106-million loan from Barclays Capital Real Estate, Archon paid $129 million for the package on CambridgePark Drive.

“There’s no denying it now,” says one source, even though Archon officials and Jones Lang LaSalle brokers handling the deal did not respond to inquiries by press deadline. Both sides have remained silent since GlobeSt.com first reported a month ago that Dallas-based Archon had beat out stiff competition to secure the assets, which total 436,000 sf in 125 CambridgePark and 150 CambridgePark Dr. J.P. Morgan acquired the buildings in 2001 for $97 million.

All but 9% of the 184,000-sf in 125 CambridgePark Dr. is leased, whereas occupancy is just 59.9% at 150 CambridgePark Dr., a 252,000-sf building that opened in 1986. The smaller property, constructed in 1984 as one of the Alewife District’s first office buildings, traded for $53.9 million, compared to $74 million paid for 150 CambridgePark Dr. In both instances, that equates to about $293 per sf, well above normal rates paid for office buildings outside of the core East Cambridge market. The land parcel was priced at $1.1 million, but there was no indication how much space can be generated on that site.