Efforts to contact Meritage principal Andrew Nathan at hisoffice in Scarsdale, NY and the sellers by press deadline were notsuccessful. The Massachusetts Avenue buildings traded for $9.5million, while 49 Bishop Allen Dr. and 30 Fisk Place went for$575,000. The acquisitions were financed with an $8-million loanfrom Wells Fargo Bank.

It is unclear how much of an association Meritage has with theentity that acquired the Cambridge buildings, but Nathan andMeritage principal Arthur DellaSalla are listed as directors ofthat group, 485 Mass Ave. Holdings LLC. The most prominent assetowned locally by Meritage is 18 Tremont St. in Boston, a 12-story,202,000-sf office building near Government Center. The firm is inthe process of selling that property, which it acquired in2005.

The Central Square purchase comes amidst a renaissance for thebusiness district, an area which had economic difficulties in the1990s before such mixed-use projects as University Park at MITarrived to bring new businesses such as medical research there.More recently, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG has infusedthe area by occupying more than one million sf in several buildingson Massachusetts Avenue, while investors have turned to overhaulingproperties in the retail section of Central Square. ArnoldGoldstein has been a long-time presence in the area, and has beenactive in the Central Square Business Association.