Invesco Lands 212 Fens Apartments for $150M+ from Pru, Skanska in Eastdil Exclusive

BOSTON—As Invesco prepares to spend upwards of $180 million on a prime Seaport District garage/office asset, the Texas firm is now said to be winning bidder for an apartment high-rise near Fenway Park being marketed by Eastdil Secured advising a joint venture of Skanska Development and Prudential REI. Parties involved are remaining silent regarding the pact, but multiple sources insist an agreement is being finalized for the property branded as Harlo, with pricing estimates trending over $150 million.

“That is what I am hearing,” conveys one CRE professional active in the multifamily sector. The 17-story, 185,000-sf tower that includes 7,000 sf of ground-level retail sits at 1350 Boylston St., home of the Fenway’s Burger King entry for many decades. The shuttered restaurant was a popular venue set on the visible 28,000-sf site one street removed from Fenway Park in a commercial cluster straddling Back Bay and Longwood Medical Area, a strip of low-rise structures redeveloped extensively this millennium. Gleaming residential towers have replaced industrial and retail buildings constructed circa mid-20th century, with Samuels & Associates the dominant landlord transforming the district.

Designed by Stantec, Harlo is formatted to “allow for a more personal living experience,” according to promotional materials issued for its groundbreaking in autumn 2015 which pledged “a dynamic flow between indoor and outdoor space” and amenities that “complement the growing vibrancy of the Fenway.” PREI Americas chief Kevin R. Smith spoke of “a high-quality, energy efficient apartment building” that targeted a LEED Gold rating. Skanska paid $12.4 million for the property in June 2012.

A Skydeck atop the building; fifth-floor outdoor terrace with canopies, grills and a fire pit; and billiards room/open workspace are among the common areas at Harlo, as is a modern fitness center featuring boxing bag, “yoga terrace” and HD-equipped exercise bikes. Transit is plentiful throughout the Fenway, including the MBTA D Line connecting to either end of that system running between Riverside Center in Newton and Boston’s Government Center.

The Eastdil Secured Capital Markets team is led locally by Managing Directors James McCaffrey and Sarah Lagosh, who did not respond to Real Reporter inquiries naming Invesco as the victorious suitor of Harlo. If consummated, it would be the latest in a series of super-sized transactions handled by Eastdil in metropolitan Boston this past year, others including a tower sale of 28 State St. in the Hub’s Financial District and 451 D St. in the Seaport, plus Jamestown’s disposition of a 23-building portfolio focused on Newbury Street, with those three assignments yielding over $1 billion total.

Real Reporter last week detailed Invesco’s Seaport District deal pending for 22 Boston Wharf Rd., the combination garage and first-class office space being harvested by Newmark for Bentall Kennedy. It has 111,000 sf of office space grafted atop the 559-space garage which was completed in 2000. On the multifamily front, Invesco in August 2017 bought a Barings Real Estate Advisers apartment community in Hull, also detailed by Real Reporter, in which 162 apartments known as The Estates were folded into the firm’s portfolio at a consideration of $47.1 million, the trade brokered by CBRE.

Market watchers could not provide a time estimate for the Harlo closing or whether Invesco intends to finance its purchase.

James McCaffrey