The first Boston conquest, 268 Summer St., is a former warehouse wedged amid a row of similarly converted structures lining the Fort Point Channel part of Summer Street. The price amounts to about $239 per sf, a relative bargain compared to the supposed $275 per sf being paid by Normandy Real Estate Partners for three office buildings across the street, 273, 281 and 321 Summer St. As reported by GlobeSt.com earlier this week, Normandy is buying the 270,000-sf portfolio for about $74 million, and was rumored to have 268 Summer St. in tow. Instead, Aegean Capital captured the asset in a last-minute surge.

Alexakos says the aggressive play for 268 Summer St. reflects his confidence in Greater Boston and Fort Point Channel in particular. "We think there's a lot of promise for rental growth there," he says. Anchored on the first floor by a Dunkin' Donuts that recently doubled to 1,800 sf, 268 Summer St. has about 9% vacancy and two leases rolling this year representing another 10% of the building. The building had been owned by an affiliate of the Archon Group LP, the Texas firm selling the three Summer Street properties to Normandy, but was not in the portfolio of 17 buildings Archon acquired in 2005 from Boston Wharf Co. "It's a good building physically," says Alexakos, so well-regarded attracted Normandy and other high-grade prospects, sources say, including finalist Ashforth Paradigm Capital Advisors.

Archon bought 268 Summer St. in 1998 for $4.5 million from a firm that had foreclosed on it in 1990. The seizure capped an effort by developer Dennis Stackhouse to convert the building into office space in the mid-1980s, a pioneering venture at the time, and one that failed upon the collapse of the Boston economy. The district's office market has seen dramatic swings since, including a brief spurt in the dot-com boom when the eclectic product type was embraced by the technology sector and commanded rents approaching $40 per sf. The average rate has since slipped back into the high-$20-per-sf range, but Alexakos is among those anticipating that will trend upward. Normandy, he notes, was not the only entity chasing the three other assets at prices approaching $275 per sf.

Aegean Capital has not yet named a leasing agent for 268 Summer St., but expects to do so soon, Alexakos says. Archon was represented in the building sale by Richards Barry Joyce & Partners and its investment sales team of Rich Bradbury and Rich Herlihy.