33 Arch St. Lands Anchor Tenant With 200,000-SF Lease

BOSTON-After more than a year, 33 Arch St. has finally landed its first major tenant. Digitas is leasing 200,000 sf in the 600,000-sf office building that is located in the heart of the city in Downtown Crossing.Congress Group Ventures owns the property along with the Value Enhancement Funds managed by Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, the National Electrical Benefit Fund and Eastern Development. The building came online in one of the city’s worst markets in years and its empty space was indicative of the state of the former roaring market. Despite the lack of pre-leasing deals, Congress Group moved ahead with the building’s construction. The building is scheduled to be completed next month.Last June, in an effort to ramp up leasing activity, the developer switched leasing agents from Trammell Crow to CB Richard Ellis and launched a marketing campaign that emphasized the advantages of “smarter” buildings, such as advanced technology systems, elevators and enhanced security and safety systems, features that are available at the 33-story tower. Dean Stratouly, president of Congress Group Ventures, says, “Our goal from the start of this development was to attract world-class companies to this location. We could not be more excited to welcome Digitas as our major tenant for the property.” Digitas is headquartered in Boston, and has offices in Chicago, London, New York and San Francisco. The company, which is relocating from the Prudential Tower, will fully occupy the eighth floor and the 12th through the 19th floors of the building.”The tangible benefits of this move for our business and our people are clear,” notes Rob Willms, president, Digitas-Boston, San Francisco and London. “We’ll be able to design space around the way we work in the newest state-of-the-art building in Boston.”Digitas was represented in the transaction by Spaulding & Slye Colliers principal William P. Barrack, assistant vice president Jason R. Cameron, and associate Jennifer K. Luginbuhl. Stuart Offner of Mintz Levin also provided legal representation for Digitas during the negotiations.According to Trammell Crow Co.’s most recent statistics, the financial district’s overall availability rate is still at a relative high of about 15%. The average asking rent for class A office space in the area is about $38 per sf.