Route 128 Office Building Breaks Ground

BEVERLY, MA-A sleek new office building has broken ground, helping to spread out a wave of speculative suburban construction along Route 128 that has previously been concentrated in Waltham some 25 miles south. The four-story, 65,000-sf 138 Conant St. is being built by Connolly Brothers, a multi-faceted construction and development firm headquartered next door at 152 Conant St. Project cost is estimated at $11 million.

“It’s a great site,” leasing broker Greg Klemmer of Klemmer Associates tells GlobeSt.com, citing attributes such as visibility and direct access to Route 128. Connolly also developed the adjacent 152 Conant St. on a speculative basis in 1989, a venture that proved successful when Electric Insurance took the entire 75,000 sf. After being there for nearly 15 years, Electric relocated to another building nearby developed on its behalf by Connolly, while 152 Conant St. was restocked as a multi-tenanted property.

Principal Stephen Connolly tells GlobeSt.com that he anticipates organic growth will lead the leasing of the newest building, although the North Shore has occasionally benefited by rising rental rates and tightening supply to the south. Connolly says he is not relying on such a trend, however, anticipating instead that the local business community has the demand necessary to fill the property. “The market has improved quite a bit,” he reports, while Klemmer says there is a particular dearth of first-class product in the region. Connolly Brothers had previously peddled the 2.7-acre site as a build-to-suit, but Klemmer says tenants tend to be reluctant to commit to a property that has not broken ground, leading to the speculative approach.