Marcus Partners Heads to Holliston; $7.1M Cambridge Savings Loan Funds $11.2M Buy

HOLLISTON — Timing suggested a repeat of a Marcus Partners program targeting industrial outdoor storage assets when the firm paid $11.2 million for 275 and 330 Hopping Brook Rd. mere weeks after seller Bay State Enterprises got IOS upzoned at the latter property, MP bought both through JLL Capital Markets and funded its 68,400-square-foot flex/industrial deal via a $7.11 million Cambridge Savings Bank loan.

Cancel any trend talk, however, to April’s major deal in Taunton where the firm led by CEO Paul Marcus gave three IOS acres props after nailing a 40,000-sf build-to-suit with Eversource Gas Co. that has renewal options at 425 John Quincy Adams at Myles Standish Park running into the late 2050s, its 12-year base term set to commence in February when the BTS is completed.

MP Head of Construction Josh Berman concurred in discussing that project that “we are seeing demand from users who want IOS with quality facilities in prime locations,” but on the Holliston investments, while opining the outdoor storage component “increases functionality and value of the property,” MP deems the IOS “ancillary” and “a minority component” to the “light industrial/warehouse footprint” that at closing was 100 percent occupied by 10 tenants, among them Baystate Enterprises, the company led by Richard N. Gordon leasing 7,400 sf with five others at the property his firm had held since paying $540,000 for 7.85 acres in June 2003 before erecting its 48,000-sf headquarters that opened there in 2005.

MP actually paid less than the 2025 value of $3.93 million as determined by Holliston assessment estimates, including land and buildings. The building features a pair of loading docks and clear heights to 25 feet, both valued elements for flex/industrial, yet receives a Class C rating by the assessor’s calculations. Even so, its value has risen steadily, topping $3.0 million in 2017 and increasing even through Covid.

Baystate Enterprises in 2018 leased out a portion of 330 Hopping Brook Rd. to Iwacki America Inc., a company active in aquatic systems technologies whose principals a few years later did a blend and extend renewal to where it today fills 41 percent of the space now held by Marcus Partners; the largest space user, Iwacki’s term runs to 2033.

MP in October bought the Taunton site for a total price of $3.5 million, the press release citing that as the second such effort in the same park of buying and demolishing an office building for industrial use. “The current market demands strategic thinking and creative approaches to change-of-use opportunities in order to maximize underutilized sites,” Berman said in the release that defined the IOS advantages as well as its platform addressing the need for industrial and the dwindling need for office products.

Four years ago this month, MP bought a Class C office building at 20 Constitution Dr. in Myles Standish Park that “was approved for a change of use, demolished and replaced” with a first-class industrial facility totaling 88,000 sf that also was leased shortly thereafter, in that case online shopping group Wayfair taking five years through August 2027. One key differentiator in Taunton versus Holliston is the ability to reduce an unwanted glut of older office product at a time when industrial has waned in terms of supply.

On the Holliston closing, JLL Managing Director Michael Restivo advised the seller along with Director David Coffman. There are four tenants housed at 275 Hopping Brook Rd. which Gordon had held with Ralph Caruso under the entity R&R Development LLC. That 20,500-sf building sold for $7.7 million and is included in the Cambridge Savings Bank loan to Marcus Partners. R&R Development LLC had bought the 7.6-acre site for $175,000 in December 2006.

275 Hopping Dale Rd.; Holliston MA

Josh Berman

Paul Marcus