Hub Commercial Sales Roll on in 2000

The end of the 1990s has not meant the end of interest in Greater Boston’s commercial real estate market, with investment sales roaring along during the first half of 2000. According to a review by Trammell Crow, the top 15 transactions totaled $1.73 billion in the first six months, a 26% increase over the total dollar volume registered at that point in 1999.

“Last year was so hot, you wondered whether we might have reached the peak,” says Trammell Crow principal Edward C. Maher Jr. “But it hasn’t slowed at all … The pipeline just always seems full.”

The average sales price of the top 15 transactions was $115 million, with a $70 million median figure. Leading the way was Deutsche Bank’s 49% purchase of both 53 and 75 State St., a $685 million-bite to buy into those prime Financial District office towers. In second place was Boston Capital’s $168.5-million acquisition of 99 High St., a deal considered by many to have solid long-term upside. Next in line was a retail portfolio, with Northstar Properties acquiring 19 shopping centers in five New England states from Shaw’s Supermarkets. The portfolio included 1.4 million sf of space.