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New Boston Pays Nearly $25M for HQ Asset

CAMBRIDGE, MA-The long-time home of Abt Associates is seen by some as a prime site for redevelopment.

By Joe Clements | Updated on March 24, 2008

CAMBRIDGE, MA-One of the city’s more enduring companies has sold its headquarters here to the New Boston Fund. For $24.5 million, Abt Associates is handing over the keys of 55 Wheeler St., a 125,000-sf complex located in Cambridge’s emerging Alewife district on the western fringe of the community.

Abt Associates is an internationally known research and consulting firm that moved its operations to 55 Wheeler St. soon after being founded by namesake Clark Abt in 1965. “It seems like they have been there forever,” one veteran Cambridge broker acknowledges, but the source says Abt officials have occasionally explored alternative venues. Abt has an office in Lexington as well, part of a global workforce exceeding 1,000 professionals. The original Cambridge space was expanded several times from 1965 to 1980.

A real estate investor familiar with 55 Wheeler St. describes the property as well-maintained but somewhat outmoded in the format of low-slung buildings interconnected by passageways. The site is about 5.5 acres, says the investor. “It has a nice campus feel to it,” says the source who envisions a redevelopment as a likely strategy going forward. Abt Associates had initially sought a sale-leaseback arrangement, says the investor, but it is unclear whether the tenant did commit to remain at the site for any period.

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