"Remaining in 48 Woerd Ave. enables Olympus NDT to sustain its work without interruption," says Richards Barry Joyce & Partners principal Jonathan Varholak, who negotiated for the tenant along with RBJ VP Ron Friedman. Varholak cites the building's central location as one benefit to Olympus NDT, a subsidiary of Japan's Olympus Corp. Intercontinental was represented in-house by Thomas Taranto, the Brighton-based real estate investment firm's director of acquisitions, assets and portfolio management.

Situated close to the Newton line, 48 Woerd Ave. is among a number of commercial properties surrounding Downtown Waltham. The supply gives tenants the ability to be in that key suburban community without paying rents now hitting into the mid-$40 per sf range for space fronting nearby Route 128 Central. Other interior Waltham space is located across the Charles River on South St., while Trammel Crow Co. is teaming with Saracen Properties on an ambitious overhaul of a former Raytheon Corp. facility on Seyon St. abutting the Watertown line. The partnership, which paid $37.5 million in December for the 23-acre complex and two adjacent parcels, is pursuing a $35 million mixed-use redevelopment that will yield some 300,000 sf of modern laboratory and office product.

Intercontinental acquired 48 Woerd Ave. in Dec. 2003 for $18.8 million on behalf of the Intercontinental Real Estate Investment Fund III, a $350 million, closed-end commingled vehicle. Launched in 2000, IREIF has a geographically diverse, core-focused strategy that has led to holdings in the hospitality, industrial, office, retail and specialty markets. Assets are located throughout the US in such areas as Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Texas. Locally, Fund III owns buildings in Cambridge, Needham and Peabody after harvesting some of its Massachusetts investments, including One Washington Mall in Boston and 735,000-sf of class A industrial space at Fort Devens.