HBM Buys Waltham Office Park for $38M

WALTHAM, MA-A real estate company already entrenched in this suburban office market stronghold has beat out a number of suitors for 175 Wyman St., a vacant 335,000-sf office property that was owned briefly by the Blackstone Group following its $39-billion acquisition of Equity Office Properties Trust earlier this year. According to industry sources, Hobbs Brook Management LLC paid $38 million for the complex, or about $113 per sf.

Calls to HBM principal Donald Oldmixon and the company’s real estate consultant, Chip Batchelder of Wyman Street Advisors, were not returned by press deadline. Nonetheless, sources insist the deal has been completed. “It’s theirs,” one tells GlobeSt.com, adding that the new ownership will likely renovate the asset into modern office space. The property had been owned at one time by Hewlett Packard Co.

“It’s basically a tear-down and rebuild,” assessed one broker familiar with 175 Wyman St. The source could not estimate the amount of capital that will be required to be competitive in Waltham’s high-end office market, but predicted that HBM will be able to make the undertaking a success, citing both their local knowledge of Waltham and past development experience. Affiliated with FM Global Investors, HBM operates the Hobbs Brook Office Park in Waltham and also constructed two office buildings in Wakefield during the last building boom.