CDM Engineering Plans HQ Move From Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE, MA-The city’s tight office market is apparently close to forcing another long-time tenant to head for the exits, as Camp Dresser & McKee is reportedly pursuing suburban alternatives with the engineering giant’s lease expiration nearing at One Cambridge Place. According to industry sources, CDM has retained Cresa Partners to conduct a pair of space searches, one south of Boston and another north of the city.

“That’s our understanding,” one broker tells GlobeSt.com while acknowledging it is unusual for a company to split its headquarter operations. That source and others maintain the requirements are each around 100,000 sf, offering suburban landlords two plums to help fill their buildings. Another broker claims CDM is on a short leash time wise, supposedly aiming to make the moves by early 2009. The firm signed a lease in November 1998 for all of One Cambridge Place, also known as 50 Hampshire St. The nine-story, 183,000-sf building was developed by the Bulfinch Cos. and is today owned by MetLife.

Cresa Partners brokers Christopher Crooks and Adam Subber are handling the CDM assignment, sources say. Crooks and CDM officials did not respond to inquiries from GlobeSt.com by press deadline. Nonetheless, several sources insist the searches are under way, including one who indicates company officials did cite the potential occupancy savings as a factor in opting to seek new quarters. Founded in 1947 by three local entrepreneurs with ties to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, CDM has been in Cambridge for nearly 20 years, having moved to One Cambridge Place from the Cambridge Center complex developed by Boston Properties.