Piedmont Expands Boston Portfolio With $74M Acquisition

By Keith Loria

25 Burlington Mall Road

Piedmont Office Realty Trust has acquired 25 Burlington Mall Road, a 287,776-square-foot office property in Burlington, Mass., for nearly $74 million. The REIT also sold 800 North Brand Boulevard, a 21-story office building in Glendale, Calif., for approximately $160 million. The 518,382-square-foot building, completed in 1990, is home to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and formerly served as headquarters for Nestlé.

At the time of the deal, 25 Burlington Mall Road was 88 percent leased to a tenant roster that included Lahey Hospital & Medical Center and Bank of America, Merrill Lynch. Constructed in 1986, the property is near Burlington’s bustling shopping, dining and entertainment options and next door to Boston Marriott Burlington Hotel. The location provides convenient access to Interstate 95 and Route 3, and there are numerous public transportation options nearby in the form of the MBTA bus service to the Alewife Red Line station.

A strong suburb

Lincoln Property Co.’s most recent Route 128 & Interstate 495’s suburban office market report revealed that strong macroeconomic indicators coupled with strengthening regional demographics position the Greater Boston suburbs for growth in the next 12 months.

“When you analyze the combined capital allocation decisions we made during the fourth quarter—including the previously announced acquisition of 9320 Excelsior Boulevard near Minneapolis for $49 million on Oct. 25—we estimate Piedmont will realize approximately $0.03 per share annualized in FFO accretion, while paying down debt by approximately $35 million,” Donald Miller, Piedmont’s CEO, said in a prepared statement.

According to Miller, the two deals were reflective of the company’s strategy of disposing of select non-core and mature assets at low yields and reinvesting proceeds into markets where Piedmont already owns an existing presence and dominant market share.

“The Mall Road purchase builds upon our dominant position on Route 128N in Boston, within close proximity to four other Piedmont-owned assets in Burlington,” C. Brent Smith, Piedmont’s president and chief investment officer, explained. “This acquisition will allow us to expand our operational synergies and capture almost 40 percent of the Class A market share in this quality Boston submarket.”

At the beginning of 2018, Piedmont Office Realty Trust sold 13 properties to Bridge Investment Group totaling more than 2 million square feet of office and 6,000 square feet of retail space.

Image courtesy of Yardi Matrix