Developer Buys Cambridge Office Building For Residential Conversion: The Boston Deal Sheet

A Seattle-based firm has filed plans for its first Boston-area office conversion project.

Tourbineau Real Estate Partners acquired a 93K SF, eight-story office building at 955 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge for $25M, the Boston Business Journal reported. The developer plans to convert the building into 125 to 150 housing units.

The project would be one of the first large-scale office conversions in Cambridge. The only other conversion proposed in the city is Alexandria Real Estate Equities’ 31-unit conversion of 161 First St.

The Massachusetts Avenue building is 20% leased, but existing tenants have leases expiring soon.

Tourbineau acquired the property from Intercontinental Real Estate Corp., which had purchased it for $101M in 2020.

The project would be Tourbineau’s first in Boston, following other conversion projects in Seattle and Nashville. The company’s portfolio also includes properties in Hawaii, Oklahoma, California and Washington, D.C. 

LEASES

Law firm Rubin Rudman is relocating its headquarters to Tishman Speyer’s 1.1M SF One Federal St. in the financial district. The firm signed a 15-year, 58K SF lease on the property’s 23rd, 24th and 25th floors. The company plans to relocate from its 43K SF office at 53 State St. in 2028. Tishman was represented in-house by Jeffrey Moore and Victoria Robinson. Rubin Rudman was represented by Cresa’s Matt Harvey and John Coakley.

***

Predicta Biosciences signed a 10K SF lease at USQ’s 10 Prospect St. in Somerville’s Union Square. The cancer technology company plans to move into its new space at the 196K SF lab building in October. The company is relocating from The Engine incubator lab at 750 Main St. in Cambridge.

***

Autonomous software company Blitzy signed a five-year, 52K SF lease at Alexandria Real Estate Equities’ One Kendall Square in Cambridge. The company has more than 200 employees, and the new space will be able to support up to 300. The lease comes after Anthropic announced plans to move into the building earlier this month.

FINANCING

The Davis Cos. completed its first transaction through its dedicated credit platform. In partnership with S. USA Insurance Co., Davis announced this week it provided a $44M construction loan to Dinosaur Capital Partners and Mugar Enterprises for their 110-unit office-to-residential conversion at 31 Milk St. in Boston. JLL’s Anthony Cutone represented Dinosaur and Mugar in the deal, which was first reported by Banker & Tradesman last month.

PERSONNEL

Melissa Schrock joined The Davis Cos. as managing director of mixed-use development, the Boston Business Journal reported. Before her new role, Schrock worked at HRP Group, most recently as executive vice president of mixed-use development, and before that, she held management positions at BXP and Samuels & Associates. Schrock is also a lecturer at MIT’s Center for Real Estate.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

Millennium Partners is planning building upgrades and new amenities at 10 Summer St. in Downtown Crossing, the former Filene’s department store building that it is bringing to market for office tenants. The building, branded as The Burnham, has up to 244K SF available. The landlord hopes to land a high-profile tenant after Arnold Worldwide and Havas Media moved out in 2024. MP Boston plans to invest in the building’s amenities suite with an exclusive tenant lounge, cafe, bar and outdoor terrace. 

***

Kendall Capital proposed a 155-unit office-to-residential conversion of 133 Federal St. in Boston’s Financial District. The company acquired the building for nearly $16M in December. The Brutalist building was certified as a landmark in 2024 by the Boston Landmark Commission. Construction is estimated to take 16 to 24 months.

***

Alexandria Real Estate Equities filed a zoning petition to add 250K SF to its 1.2M SF Technology Square campus, Banker & Tradesman reported. The proposed lab development site is at the corner of Galileo Way and Main Street. As part of the deal, Alexandria proposed a lab-to-residential conversion of Moderna’s former headquarters at 161 First St. in partnership with Beacon Communities.