Jamestown Grabs 220 KSF Cambridge Office Building for $136M

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Jamestown has enhanced its presence in metropolitan Boston with the addition of the Davenport Building, a 220,000-square-foot office property in Cambridge, Mass. The real estate investment firm acquired the asset from DivcoWest for $136 million.

What a difference a couple of years make. DivcoWest had acquired the Davenport in 2012 for just $79 million.

Originally developed in 1860, the Davenport started out as the Davenport Furniture Factory and more than a century later in 1987, the seven-structure property was transformed into a single office building. The Davenport last underwent a makeover in 2010, when the owner invested $18 million in capital improvements. Today, the four-story office destination in the East Cambridge submarket is fully occupied by a roster of seven tenants that includes PowerSteering Software, biotech firm Nimbus and software company HubSpot, which expanded its occupancy at the building to 119,000 square feet in mid-2013.

“Jamestown’s commitment to the innovation economy in Boston is further solidified as we acquire the Davenport in Cambridge,” Michael Phillips, president of Jamestown, noted in a prepared statement. “The city has been at the forefront of embracing the new innovation economy and we’ve been working hard with them to effectively meet the needs of today’s evolving workforce.”

Jamestown made its first purchase in the Cambridge market in late 2013, when it acquired the nearly 300,000-square-foot office and lab property at 245 First St., formerly known as Riverview, in the Kendall Square submarket of Cambridge.