HD Supply Leases 152,000SF at Boston Business Park

BOSTON—Offering a badly needed jolt to the struggling warehouse market, an Atlanta-based industrial supply firm has signed a 152,000-sf lease at the Boston Business Park that straddles the Boston and Dedham border. HD Supply will relocate next February to the 72-acre, 640,000-sf property at 100 Meadow Rd. into the portion located in the Hub’s Hyde Park district. The park could be expanded to nearly one million sf over time.
“We’re thrilled about having HD Supply coming to the park to jump-starting this exciting project,” says NAI Hunneman partner Cathy Minnerly, exclusive listing agent for Boston Business Park on behalf of its joint venture owners, Braintree-based Campanelli Cos. and Commonfund Realty. Austin Smith of Newmark Knight Frank negotiated for the tenant. Campanelli principal Stephen Murphy acted on behalf of the landlord as well.
The blockbuster lease is a bit of déjà vu for the brokers, with Minnerly representing the tenant and Smith the agent for HD Supply when the company secured 70,000 sf at its current location in Norwood. “We greatly appreciate Austin Smith’s efforts in this transaction,” says Minnerly, an experienced broker active throughout the South Shore who has been representing Boston Business Park for several years, even before Campanelli came on board as a partner in 2004. Commonfund has been an investor since the park traded for $29 million in July 2003.
Winning such a prime tenant as HD Supply underscores the strengths of Boston Business Park, according to Campanelli principal Robert DeMarco. “The building has great bones and works well for warehouse users,” relays DeMarco, whose firm is a specialist in developing super-sized business parks similar to the Hyde Park facility that had for decades been a distribution center for a major supermarket chain. While older in scope than much of the institutional-grade warehouse buildings in Greater Boston, 100 Meadow Rd. has clear heights to 32 feet, notes DeMarco, plus efficient column spacing and countless loading docks. HD Supply is also leasing 5,500 sf of office space in Building 100, the 433,000-sf structure that is the centerpiece of the park and has 33,000 sf of office space overall.
Other attractions of the property for tenants are having both close proximity to Route 128 and the coveted Boston address, says DeMarco, as well as rail access, an element that apparently was not needed by HD Supply. “The competition for this tenant was stiff, but the combination of high-quality real estate and ownership was important in our selection and ultimately won the day,” Smith explains in relaying his client’s wish list.
The landlord has leased tens of thousands of square feet during its ownership of Boston Business Park, often on a short-term basis. The HD Supply transaction for five years is long by comparison, and will fill a substantial piece of the property once Campanelli completes interior tenant improvements and exterior upgrades such as new light poles, landscaping and resurfacing of the parking lot. “It’s all good,” says Minnerly.
HD Supply is a leading wholesale distribution company that provides a range of services in the specialty construction markets, and to energy, infrastructure repair and maintenance professionals. Minnerly says the company’s growth reflects improved activity in those fields, and says she is hopeful that an improving economy will lead to even more tenants “in this very up-and-coming industrial park.”