Retailer Secures $14M-Plus Slice of Downtown Crossing

BOSTON-Another long-held property in the bustling Downtown Crossing retail district is changing hands, but this time the buyer is a local group possessing deep roots to the area. The owners of family run Manhattan Clothing have acquired 17-33 Winter St. and the connected 6 Hamilton Pl. for $14.5 million, aided by a $10-million loan from Boston Private Bank & Trust.

“It has nothing but upside,” says Browne Realty Advisors’ principal Mark Browne, who negotiated the building’s transfer on behalf of the buyers, 17-33 Winter St. LLC, and the sellers, Janelon Realty Trust. Having purchased the Manhattan Clothing building at 40-46 Winter St. five years ago for $2.2 million, the buyers now have “a dominant presence” on the strip, says Browne. Owned by Joseph, Mary and Morris Naggar, Manhattan Clothing has been in Boston since the 1980s. The anchor store is located in Cambridge’s Central Square.

Leased on the lower levels to Bally Total Fitness and Staples, 17-33 Winter St. is part of the so-called Ladder District, a series of narrow streets running perpendicular to the Boston Common and Washington Street, Downtown Crossing’s main thoroughfare. Winter Street is considered especially valuable for retail thanks to the presence of three subway lines and direct pedestrian connection to Summer Street leading to South Station and the emerging Seaport District. An estimated 100,000 people traverse the district daily.