Campanelli Tabs Newmark to Lease Norwood ‘Jewel,’ Sell Heritage II

By Joe Clements

NORWOOD—Having brought North Quincy’s 518,000-sf Heritage Landing from zero to almost 80 percent occupancy, Campanelli is now reviving another “ghost building” in the resurgent Route 128 South office market, launching a full-scale renovation of 193,000 sf at Upland Woods where Covidien bought out of a lease after taking over tenant Aspect Medical Systems. Familiar faces galore are on the team which separately undertook an overhaul of Heritage Two, a 185,000-sf structure that is now 93 percent filled and being put on the market for sale through Newmark’s Capital Markets group.

Besides engaging the same designers—Margulies Perruzzi Architects—who overhauled Heritage Two, Campanelli has retained that project’s exclusive leasing team of Newmark’s Michael Frisoli and Matt Morgan and added Taryn Wilson, a suburban CRE veteran who has represented Upland Woods for over a decade. They will work with Campanelli Leasing Manager Danielle Simbliaris on pitching space subdividable to 11,000 sf up to the entire structure, part of a master-planned complex the firm acquired in Oct. 2003.

“We are in good shape for meeting any requirement,” Simbliaris tells therealreporter.com in announcing the fast-track endeavor being performed in-house by Campanelli’s construction division, that unit also a fixture in the three-building Heritage Landing renaissance and a key component of the firm’s fully integrated platform. UPLAND can begin accommodating tenants this September and work is slated for completion by year end, Simbliaris outlines.

When finished, UPLAND will have a new full-service cafe, “best-in-market” fitness center with locker rooms and showers, conference facilities, break-out collaboration spaces and a gaming area sporting foosball, ping-pong and shuffleboard. Unusually high ceilings, brightly lit open space and a central “street” with storefront-style tenant entrances are designed to attract both established and growing companies.

Working with Campanelli Director of Leasing Peter Brown, Frisoli and Morgan are credited by principal Steve Murphy for having been “at the helm of successfully taking Heritage Landing” from a fallow relic of State Street Bank Corp.’s sprawling North Quincy complex dating to the 1980s into a vibrant, multi-tenanted environment that has drawn a majority of its denizens from Boston. Many came in search of relief from skyrocketing rents downtown and in Cambridge, Campanelli benefitting from access to the MBTA Red LIne that connects into the Hub.

“We plan to deliver the same caliber of amenities and first-class space at UPLAND and continue the great momentum we have had at Quincy in Norwood,” says Murphy, adding, “with Frisoli and Morgan’s accomplishments and Wilson’s expertise and knowledge of the property over the past decade, we are expected to maximize the great potential of this hidden jewel.”

Perched conveniently off I-95 at the juncture of Route One, UPLAND is poised to assist sticker-shocked tenants in the Route 128 Central strongholds similar to the way Heritage attracted urban refugees, relays Frisoli who boldly proclaims that “we will be the most sought-after building in this submarket and will provide great value for companies being priced out of the Burlington, Waltham, Needham” hotspots. Many companies, he reports, “are finding that their rents have significantly increased since they signed their lease, five, seven or 10 years ago,” but face a dilemma in having limited options, especially large users needing 50,000 sf or more, of which several requirements are in circulation. “You can count the number of options on one hand of brand-new product currently (available) in the 128 South Market,” Frisoli observes, an assessment supported by Encompass Real Estate Strategy’s spring 2016 report that says there are just three availabilities in the submarket between 100,000 and 200,000 sf and none larger than 200,000 sf.

Encompass principal Brendan Carroll further relays that the South submarket has seen four quarters of positive absorption, bringing the vacancy rate down to 13.0 percent for 21.6 million sf. The rental delta shows the central region at $32.33 per sf versus $23.66 per sf in the suburban south flank, fueling the anticipated exodus.

UPLAND is also being repositioned at a time when the upper tier of the submarket is undergoing its own rebirth in the form of new housing and retail options featuring the nearby Legacy Place lifestyle center and a similar complex at University Station in Westwood. Campanelli has contributed to the transformation into a LWP environment, having developed One Upland, a 262-unit luxury apartment community at Upland Woods in concert with Thorndike Development.

Upland Woods, which Campanelli acquired for $17.4 million, is also minutes from MBTA commuter rail and Amtrak service connecting to Boston, Providence and New York City. On top of Building 100, the firm which has sold off various portions of the original 131 acres purchased still has Lot 300 where 100,000 sf of new construction could be supported.

Simbliaris was unable to discuss industry buzz that Heritage Two is now being pitched for sale exclusively through Newmark and its Capital Markets Division led by Robert E. Griffin Jr., Edward C. Maher Jr. and Matthew E. Pullen. Calls to Newmark were not returned by press deadline. As in the case of the leasing agents, the Capital Markets arm has close ties to the building, having procured Campanelli in June 2013 when that and Heritage One were secured for $16.3 million. The Griffin group separately negotiated Campanelli’s purchase of Heritage Three at 108 Myrtle St., that 168,825-sf building bought for $8.6 million in September 2014.