Howe, Stevens Negotiate 26,000-SF Seaport Lease

BOSTON — A green-centric energy efficiency company that recently opened in the Seaport District has thrived enough there to sign a long-term extension at 21 Drydock Ave., parties involved in the deal announced this week. More recently being promoted as the Innovation District, the 1,000-acre expanse on Boston Harbor quickly caught the fancy of Next Step Living, with the firm surging in its occupancy from barely 7,000 sf to leasing a 26,000-sf block.

Future options could push the figure to 40,000 sf, one source maintains, although tenant broker Debra L. Stevens of the Stevens Group declined comment on specifics such as lease length, pricing or specific clauses. The landlord, Millennium Partners, was represented by Tim Howe of CBRE/New England.

A press release issued late Thursday features a salutation from Mayor Thomas Menino, the submarket’s chief booster. “I was delighted two years ago when Next Step Living chose Boston’s Innovation District as its home,” Menino conveys in the statement that celebrates the firm’s ascension from 25 employees to a staff of 300. The group that helps homeowners on energy efficiency and incorporating solar panels has become “a crucial component in the development of Boston’s green tech cluster and at the nucleus of greening Boston’s historic residences,” Menino says in the release.

Also in the announcement, Next Step Living President Geoff Chapin and CFO Brian Greenfield laud the city’s efforts to create a business-friendly atmosphere that is especially supportive of clean tech and new-age companies. Multiple public transit options also met the tenant’s needs, the principals add in relaying why 21 Drydock Ave. won out over other potential venues. Ongoing plans call for increased housing and solidifying a social infrastructure to further lure businesses to the Seaport. “The city of Boston has made this choice easy for us on many dimensions,” Chapin says in the release where he also praises the functionality of the building along Drydock Avenue, a staple of the Hub’s working port.

Officials did not say whether any work is required to make the expanded Next Step space available for occupancy, or when that might be completed. Tenants have been able to strike favorable allowances due to the loose real estate environment. Jones Lang LaSalle puts the Seaport District office vacancy rate at 16.7 percent for 5.8 million sf, although the submarket did post an impressive net absorption of plus-442,000 in 2011.