"The timing was right," CBRE/New England principal Mark Reardon explains to GlobeSt.com. Client ECRM "got an asset off the books that is not growing for them, and [sold into] a market flush with cash." Joining Reardon in the marketing campaign were CBRE/New England colleagues Bruce Levine, Patrick Cavanagh and Jake Borden.

A producer of imaging equipment, ECRM's lineage in Massachusetts dates to the 1970s. Reardon declined to discuss financial terms, but the leaseback portion is for 10 years. Not only does that mean a victory for the state's beleaguered manufacturing sector, the new owners of the office/R&D building are expected to receive periodic rental increases in addition to the long-term commitment, according to data reviewed by GlobeSt.com. The buyers also secured a 10.5-acre parcel that offers quick access to interstates 495 and 93, adds Reardon. "It's a quality building," he says," and is in a community 30 miles north of Boston finally emerging from a difficult start to the decade.

The anticipated recovery is leading to money pouring into suburban Boston from all arenas, as demonstrated in another sale Reardon just brokered north off Boston near Route 128 in Peabody. The $7.8-million transfer of that 134,000-sf building at One First Ave. to Paradigm Properties was made on behalf of a fund that will sell into the institutional market after assembling at least $100 million of industrial buildings. Detailed last week by GlobeSt.com, the Peabody sale completed a value-add strategy employed by Taurus Investments, which retained Reardon to reformat the leasing roster after buying the asset in 2005.