Eric Svenson, who started the Boston firm just last year with brother Ben and Dana Nielsen, tells GlobeSt.com that the property was a perfect first buy given its location just one block from Post Office Square and its high occupancy rate.
"We're certainly opportunistic investors but we felt it was important for our first investment to be a stable asset," says Svenson, who along with Nielsen, formerly worked for the Abbey Group, in Boston. "We think the building is well positioned to be a strong downtown asset in a market that is continuing to strengthen."
Built in 1910 and fully renovated in 2001, the six-sided building, considered by many real estate professionals to be "the gem" of Broad Street, will be strengthened even more by the city's Crossroads Initiative, a planned upgrading of the streetscape that will link it to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway and the Boston waterfront, Svenson says.
The off-market purchase, acquired from the New York investment firm Blakely Sterns, also included Fairlane Park, a landscaped courtyard located directly next to the building which serves as the entrance to both 15 Broad St. and 75 State St. The acquisition, Svenson says, was an outgrowth of a relationship with that firm.
Currently leased to 23 tenants, including TD Banknorth and EMI Strategic Marketing, with lease rollovers that won't be significant until three years down the road, the building also reflected the new company's comfort level with the Boston market, he notes.
"It's a market we feel very bullish about," he says, adding that the firm plans further opportunistic buys in Massachusetts.
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