PRTM To Be First Tenant at 77 CityPoint

WALTHAM, MA-A 200,000-sf office building leading a charge of speculative construction here is about to sign its first tenant, with industry sources indicating that PRTM has agreed to take the fifth floor of 77 CityPoint. Rising on a hilltop overlooking Route 128, the elegant, six-story structure is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2008.

“That is true,” one source responded when asked if PRTM is signing on as the inaugural tenant, reportedly for 36,000 sf. The high-end building is being developed by Boston Properties, which has pegged greater Waltham as its focus in the region’s suburban market. A pioneer of Cambridge’s Kendall Square office market a quarter century ago and owner of the Prudential Center and other downtown Boston assets, Boston Properties now owns 1.57 million sf along the central Route 128 beltway and is pursuing construction of another 500,000 sf at 201 Jones Rd. in Waltham, aka the Waltham Weston Corporate Center.

PRTM’s lease will represent a cutback in space for the business-consulting firm, which has been in more than 50,000-sf at Bay Colony Corporate Center, another top Waltham office address. Bay Colony was taken over last month by Broadway Real Estate Partners, a New York firm that acquired the campus in a package from Beacon Capital Partners. One observer claims the efficiency of 77 CityPoint allows PRTM to take less space, opining that the cutback does not indicate that the firm is shrinking. “They are doing wonderfully,” offers the observer, a notion underscored by the 31-year-old company’s upscale choice of headquarters buildings.