RW Holmes Relocates to Wayland Woods

WAYLAND, MA-One of the most enduring commercial real estate firms in suburban Boston has found a new home after more than three decades in Natick. RW Holmes Realty last week made the move to Wayland Woods, a 60,000-sf office building located a half-mile from the Natick line.

Principal Garry Holmes tells GlobeSt.com that the decision was made after failing to find the right alternative in the company’s long-time domain. RWH scrambled to find new quarters after a tenant in the company’s property on Route 9 needed more space, Holmes explains, adding he also wanted to consolidate his own operations onto one floor from two. That was easier said than done, he says.

“It’s amazing when you go out in this market and see how tight things really are,” says Holmes, whose firm is partly to blame after having helped firms such as Boston Scientific and Mathworks gobble up hundreds of thousands of square feet this decade. Part of the MetroWest office submarket, Framingham and Natick have been consistently strong performers since the early 1990s, luring in a diverse tenant base that includes life sciences companies, technology firms and business giants such as Bose Corp., Staples and TJX Cos. Also covering Sudbury and Wayland, the 4.5-million-sf submarket ended the first quarter with a vacancy of 9.6%, according to Cushman & Wakefield statistics, giving it the lowest rate among the seven markets tracked by C&W and the only one in single digits. The figure was also well below the 15.2% average suburban vacancy.