Lee strikes 2 more Boston deals

Real Estate Alert, July 7, 2004

An Asian-backed investor has reached two purchase agreements in the Boston area for about $205 million in total.

Raymond C. Lee agreed to buy an 842,000-square-foot portfolio of office and industrial properties, located mostly near Boston, from iStar Financial of New York. He separately agreed to buy the 170,000-sf building at 100 Franklin Street in downtown Boston from SSR Realty Advisors. Cushman & Wakefield had both listings.

The exact purchase prices could not be learned, but Lee is believed to be paying in the neighborhood of the anticipated prices. The seven-property iStar portfolio, which went on the market in May, was expected to fetch about $175 million, which would translate to a cap rate of about 7.5%. The nine-story building at 100 Franklin, which was put up for sale in March, has an estimated value of about $30 million. The occupancy rate is 66%, with Boston Stock Exchange leasing the most space.

Lee, an active buyer of suburban office properties in the Boston area, operates an investment firm called Oasis Development in Lynn,Mass., as well as an Asian-based investment group called East-West Enterprises. His investors include wealthy individuals in Hong Kong.

Oasis has been snapping up suburban office properties--and one downtown office building, at 10 Milk Street--over the past several months, amassing a regional portfolio of some 2 million sf. It is a relatively new player in the Boston market.

The iStar portfolio consists of net-leased properties--six in suburban Boston and the seventh in Las Vegas. The largest is Concord Farms 2-7, a five-building office property, plus a parcel, in Concord, Mass. Tenants include Sybase, Welch's Foods and law firm Hamilton Brook.

The Las Vegas property is the 214,000-sfWells Fargo Center, a five-building complex at 3300-3380 West Sahara Avenue.