Equity Industrial Names C&W Exclusive Leasing Agent for 650,000-SF Cisco Site in Salem, NH
October 25, 2010 — By Joe Clements
SALEM, NH—As Equity Industrial Partners gears up to reinvigorate one of southern New Hampshire’s largest commercial properties, the Needham, MA-based firm has officially retained Cushman & Wakefield as exclusive leasing agent for the 650,000-sf complex at 9 Northeastern Blvd. The real estate services firm has already helped EIP in the leasing of 260,000 sf by two tenants, and Executive Director Thomas P. Farrelly says C&W is using talent on both sides of the Massachusetts border to entice prospects to the building that sits at Exit 2 of Interstate 93.
“The activity has been phenomenal,” says Farrelly, working with colleagues Denis Dancoes and Sue Ann Johnson from C&W’s Granite State office and the suburban Boston team of Richard Ruggiero and Torin Taylor. The mix of high-end manufacturing and office space should appeal to a variety of prospects, says Farrelly, and C&W is doing its best to apprise companies of an availability that had not been in the market during its stewardship by occupant Cisco Systems.
As detailed last month by The Real Reporter, EIP swooped in to secure 9 Northeastern Blvd. for $12.2 million, a fraction of the $45 million the same investors reaped when Cisco acquired the asset from them in 2000 to house its regional operations. Changing priorities have since made the New England Manufacturing Center expendable, leading to the sale of the empty facility to EIP, an experienced owner and operator of commercial space throughout the US led by Lewis Heafitz, Donald Levine and Neal Shalom.
A $16.9 million loan from NewAlliance Bank has enabled EIP to move proactively to improve 9 Northeastern Blvd. and accommodate a multi-tenanted platform, relays Farrelly, who marvels at the new ownership’s lighting-fast repositioning efforts that includes capital improvements to the 110-acre campus structurally and on the landscaping, an aspect that had been somewhat neglected in the latter days of Cisco’s ownership.
“It’s exciting to see,” says Farrelly. “They are taking a world-class manufacturing facility that has been stuck in a vapor lock, and opening it up again for business in a big way . . . It is great to see for the community.”
Southern New Hampshire has been “challenging” on both the industrial and office fronts, according to Farrelly, with industrial vacancies in the high teen’s percentage-wise and office product up into the 20 percent range. Confidence in leasing up such a voluminous amount of space stems from 9 Northeastern Blvd.’s sponsorship and the property’s functional elements. Well designed as a property for the new millennium, 9 Northeastern Blvd. underwent regular upgrades over the years, explains Farrelly, making it competitive to not just nearby buildings, but for tenants across the border. The lack of a state income or sales tax in New Hampshire has proven an extra draw, according to Farrelly.
“It’s huge,” he says, with the benefit to employees considered a recruitment tool. Southern New Hampshire has also become a viable business location due to the Boston Manchester Regional Airport, concurs Farrelly, who predicts the tenant traffic being generated at 9 Northeastern Blvd. will translate into fresh commitments in the coming weeks. “The landlord is being extremely aggressive with rents in the single digits, and you just cannot beat the quality of the building,” he relays.
Even as C&W and EIP work to bring in new prospects, the team is preparing for the arrival in early 2011 of the two signed tenants, one call center CCS Corp. and the other Comcast Inc., with the latter entity taking 120,000 sf at the outset and reportedly planning to secure even more warehouse space. Farrelly declined comment on that matter or lease terms. The Comcast lease was negotiated on behalf of the tenant by CresaPartners principal Mitchell P. Jacoby.
