"It's a wonderful property," says one Boston investment specialist who predicts the tower will generate considerable interest from a range of potential suitors. Along with an attached parking garage, the source notes that 75-101 Federal St. benefits from a strong location and a large block of retail space that features a bank, convenience store and several restaurants. The bustling Downtown Crossing shopping district is also close by, as is access to virtually all of the city's subway lines.
Due to its unique history, 75-101 Federal St. has a complicated ownership arrangement, with a Dutch pension fund controlling 75 Federal St. and Equity Office Properties running the larger, and newer, 101 Federal St. The Dutch group acquired the building with Beacon Properties Corp. in the mid-1990s from the H.N. Gorin Co., which had developed both structures, albeit nearly 70 years apart. Equity took over in 1998 when it purchased Beacon, at the time a public REIT.
Calls to Equity were not returned, while Trammell Crow broker Robert E. Griffin Jr. declined comment.
One lingering question is whether there is a clause that requires Equity to sell its portion at the behest of the Dutch group. The overseas partner had recently tried to find a buyer for its piece, but got only a lukewarm response, and the investment broker following the deal surmised there might be a requirement that Equity must now offer up its stake as well.
The late Harry N. Gorin, one of Boston's more successful commercial property owners of his time, developed the art deco 75 Federal St. Built in 1920, the gold-colored, 21-story structure stood alone until Gorin's daughter, Rosalind, tried her hand at development in the 1980s by grafting the 31-story 101 Federal St. onto 75 Federal St's west wall. Both properties share a common lobby area and elevator banks.
Reflecting Boston's position as one of the top three office markets in the country, 75-101 Federal St. is just the latest Downtown tower to change hands in recent years. In 2000 alone, new owners have swooped in to buy such Financial District buildings as 99 Summer St., purchased for $66 million by Paradigm Properties and the Carlyle Group, 99 High St., bought by Boston Capital for $168.5 million, and 265 Franklin St., which Boston Properties and a New York pension fund acquired last month for $97 million.
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