Investment Sales Crater After Record 2007

BOSTON-After starting with a bang, the 2008 investment sales pace in Greater Boston fizzled, dramatically, and is limping along heading towards midyear, according to a report from Colliers Meredith & Grew. Even when not including the $4.2-billion purchase of Equity Office Properties assets by Blackstone in early 2007, Q1 transaction volume paled in comparison to the start of last year, particularly for super-sized trades.

“It was harder to finance the bigger deals,” says CMG research director and SVP Mary Sullivan Kelly, whose firm estimates total sales at $1.16 billion for all property types, including industrial, multifamily, office and retail. That is $450 million below the 2007 Q1 results when discounting the Blackstone/EOP activity. Particularly in the suburbs, transactions were generally under $20 million, Kelly tells GlobeSt.com.

The $477-million purchase of a 49% interest in 53 and 75 State St. from RREEF by majority owner Brookfield Financial Partners made up the lion’s share of Boston office building sales in Q1, relays CMG. Brookfield, in a deal first reported by GlobeSt.com, took full control of the two office towers in January after Rreef’s share was shopped to other investors for much of 2007. Five other office building sales pushed the total to just $507 million for Boston, well below the $850 million traded in Q1 2007, minus Blackstone/EOP. Among the early 2008 sales was the acquisition of 4 Liberty Sq. to locally-based Synergy and 285 Summer St. to New York City-based Aegean Capital.