ChoiceStream To Move Into ADD Inc. Space

CAMBRIDGE, MA-A lease pending in Kendall Square is offering further proof that the office market here has recovered from a prolonged–and atypical–slump, with technology firm ChoiceStream Inc. said to be taking upward of 40,000 sf at Two Cambridge Place. The deal would help carry the momentum of a brisk opening frame into the second quarter. Nearly all the city’s leasing velocity in 2007 has been concentrated in East Cambridge and the Kendall Square center of that 12-million-sf market. The office submarket ended the first quarter at just 6.9% vacant after 90,000 sf of net absorption, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

Calls to leasing brokers for the 65,000-sf building, also known as 210 Broadway, and to officials at ChoiceStream were not returned by press deadline, but sources insist the company has committed to take over space being vacated by ADD Inc., the architectural firm which helped former owner Bulfinch Cos. upgrade the property into first-class office space earlier this decade. MetLife acquired Two Cambridge Place as part of a $103-million portfolio purchase in September 2005 that included the abutting 50 and 60 Hampshire Sts. Two Cambridge Place is currently 75% occupied and is advertising space at $38 per sf.