"We're happy," Lincoln Property Co. SVP and regional director John D. Miller tells GlobeSt.com, after he and colleague Jeffrey C. Moore represented MetLife in negotiating the 10-year lease for all 180,000 sf in the nine-story building. According to Miller, whose firm is leasing and management agent for One, Two and Three Cambridge Place, "it's a positive deal for the tenant and a very good outcome for MetLife." CDM was guided by Cresa Partners CEO William Goade and principals Christopher Crooks and Adam Subber.

Industry observers claim MetLife lowered its rental rate once CDM showed the firm was serious about leaving. That departure was first reported by GlobeSt.com on March 24th, unveiling a bifurcated plan to have an office south of Boston and another north. According to sources, CDM had toured several buildings on the South Shore, and was about to lease a Woburn property owned by the Campanelli Cos. that would satisfy the north requirement. GlobeSt.com then reported that CDM had suddenly ended its search and agreed to keep the headquarters at One Cambridge Place, where the company has been since the building came on line in the late 1990s.

Citing confidentiality agreements, Miller declined comment on specifics, but he characterizes the rate as "competitive" compared to recently achieved deals. Although Microsoft's blockbuster lease at One Memorial Dr. last summer carried a rent into the low $70s per sf, the market rate is substantially below that range. Richards Barry Joyce & Partners puts the average asking rent for class A space in Cambridge at $52.97 per sf. Miller would only say MetLife "recognized the value" of having CDM as a tenant enough to work diligently to retain the company. The firm would have achieved some cost savings in departing, he says, but Miller maintains CDM benefits from avoiding the disruptions fomented in relocating such a sizeable operation. Efforts to contact CDM officials by press deadline were unsuccessful.