Neelon, Normandy Begin $38M Office Project

WALTHAM, MA-Between vehicles hurtling along Route 128 to one side and a building retrofit under way on the other, speakers needed to up the octaves Tuesday at 21 Hickory Dr. while celebrating the start of Overlook Center, a 105,000-sf class A structure that will soon tower over America’s Technology Highway. In many ways, the din–which included a backhoe tearing up one corner of the development parcel–sent the message loud and clear that suburban Boston’s core office market is operating at a fever pitch as the mid-year approaches.

“We really like the timing for when this is going to be delivered,” says Neelon Properties principal Christopher Neelon, whose family owned firm anticipates the six-story building will open next fall on a site it has controlled for a half-century. Having weathered another Massachusetts meltdown earlier this decade that put even Waltham in dire straits, Neelon and co-developer Normandy Real Estate Partners were spurred to move forward by the city’s impressive rebound that has rents above $40 per sf and a slate of competitors looming on the horizon. In acknowledging the brisk activity surrounding Tuesday’s groundbreaking of the $38-million building, Normandy principal Raymond Trevisan tells GlobeSt.com that the undertaking makes sense despite the lack of a signed tenant or any immediate prospects.

“You hate to be the last one out of the ground,” he says, and competitors such as Boston Properties, Davis Marcus Partners and Hobbs Brook Management are already forging ahead or about to begin new office construction. By one estimate, more than three million sf of new office space is in the pipeline for the central Route 128 belt anchored by Waltham. Others are racing to secure existing product with an eye towards quick redevelopment, as in the case of the building being overhauled next door to the Overlook Center groundbreaking. A large banner advertising available space draped one side of that property, the Bear Hill Business Center.