BOSTON-After a year on the market, John Hancock Financial Services Inc. is selling its two adjoining properties located in the heart of the city's downtown area to NY-based the Related Cos. LP and locally based Beal Cos. LLP.
The properties include the 61,110 sf 131 Clarendon St. building, which is home to the Hard Rock Café, and an adjacent 18,000 sf parking lot at the corner of Stuart and Clarendon streets. Roy Anderson, a second vice president of public relations at Hancock tells GlobeSt.com that the transaction will close within a year, but terms of the deal are not being disclosed.
Don Hause, senior director at GVA Thompson Doyle Hennessey & Everest, estimates for GlobeSt.com that $30 million is what the properties are worth when their redevelopment potential is taken into account. “[The properties] will generate very good returns,” he says.
The company says its decision to sell is based on “positive market conditions for high-quality development opportunities” as well as an assessment of future corporate space needs, which indicates that the properties are not likely to be needed by the company during the next decade. “Given current market conditions, real estate is an attractive investment, particularly high-quality development parcels in Boston. This makes it an excellent time to sell these properties. The company is able to maximize the amount of capital it receives for the properties and, in turn, provides maximum value to our shareholders,” says Deborah McAneny, Hancock's executive vice president of Structured and Alternative Investments.
According to Ken Himmel, managing partner with the Related Cos., “The opportunity to develop hotel, residential and retail mixed use projects in Back Bay Boston is a rare find…and these sites are as close as you can get to the heart of Back Bay/Copley Square. We look forward to exploring the opportunity to responsibly develop these properties with the city and all appropriate neighborhood groups.” Bruce A. Beal Jr., executive vice president of The Related Companies, L.P., notes that the development team will be meeting with the city to explore development objectives and height and massing criteria for the mixed-use project.
Not included in the deal is a third Hancock property on Stanhope Street that was put on the market in May of 2002. The 11,000-sf parking lot is right behind the $400-million mixed-use Columbus Center project being built by Cassin/Winn Associates. Lindsey Cronin, a spokesperson for the developers, tells GlobeSt.com that Roger Cassin spoke to Hancock about the parcel a year ago when it first came on the market. “Hancock didn't give him a straight answer,” says Cronin, who adds that the developers moved forward with their project without acquiring the parcel. If the parcel is ultimately incorporated into the Columbus Center project, Cronin says it would most likely house a café.
Anderson acknowledges that the parcel was put on the market, but he says that Hancock has not “announced any plans for that property.”
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