Newbury Retail Condos Fetch $5.9M in Linear Purchase Negotiated by Colliers Int.

BOSTON—Colliers International sales specialist Lisa M. Campoli expected her firm’s listing of four commercial condominiums on Newbury Street would go fast, and that prediction offered to The Real Reporter in October has proven correct following their purchase by Linear Retail Properties. The Burlington-based firm paid a total of $5.99 million for the space that totals 5,700 sf.

“We’re extremely focused on retail inside Route 128, and have a very strong appetite for Newbury Street and the Back Bay,” Linear principal Aubrey E. Cannuscio says this week after his firm won a spirited competition for the property said to have involved upwards of a half-dozen serious bidders. “It’s what we want,” Cannuscio says of the product at 292, 294 and 296 Newbury St., units created after owner Provident Development Group bought the buildings from a Jesuit religious order in 2007 and forged seven residential units that were split from the retail condominiums.

One Newbury Street CRE veteran calls the retail pricing “healthy,” while still below some of the rates commanded for other assets that have changed hands on the popular thoroughfare. The 292-296 Newbury St. buildings are between Gloucester and Hereford Streets, which the source says is still emerging as a retail destination. For Linear, the good thing is its new acquisition comes fully leased, enabling the tide of change to push up into the strip for what should eventually lead to higher rents. “We feel pretty good about where we are,” says Cannuscio. “It’s an improving block.”

The strong stores at 292-296 Newbury St. could even foster some of that energy. Tenants there include a retailer selling the popular Vibram running shoe, plus Michael Labrecque Salon and MiniLuxe. In repositioning the buildings, Provident “came out okay,” the Newbury Street veteran relays, especially given the challenging economy into which the conversion was launched. Contacted late Thursday, Campoli says she was not surprised by the reaction to the listing. “It’s Newbury Street,” says the Colliers Executive VP, who handled the negotiations with VP Nicholas Herz, representing the seller and procuring the buyer.

Even facing lofty pricing compared to other areas, Newbury Street will remain on Linear’s radar screen as the firm ramps up its acquisitions program, says Cannuscio, whose group had been among New England’s most prolific buyers of “convenience-oriented retail” since its forming in 2003 by William J. Beckeman. Backed by Principal Financial Group, Linear has assembled more than 50 assets valued in excess of $300 million.

The investment sales swoon that began in mid-2008 did lead Linear to shut its machine down for a bit, but the group has come roaring back in the past 12 months, and Cannuscio says 2011 looks promising. “It’s good to be a seller of top quality retail today,” he says. “We are making some pretty aggressive offers.” Linear already had a stake on Newbury Street prior to its latest conquest, with the firm owning 108 Newbury St. as well.