T H E A N N U A L R E V I E W 59 THE REAL
Reporter®
BY JOE CLEMENTS
BOSTON — They used to be Dionne & Gass, a plucky boutique law
firm fighting above its weight as advisors to an esteemed lineup of
commercial real estate owners and operators. Then five years
ago
next month, the platform of Richard D. Dionne and Richard D. Gass
and changed when their firm was ac- quired by Saul Ewing LLP, a
prac- tice focused on the East Coast which longtime Dionne &
Gass partner Sally E. Michael says has been helpful in expanding
their book of business and ensuring existing clients aiming to
pursue markets outside New England can get one-stop coverage.
“I think everyone has bene- fitted,” Michael says, and Saul Ewing
was no doubt enthused inheriting a number of Bay State titans,
among them Harold Brown’s Hamilton Co. and KS Partners, the former
a client of hers for nearly a quarter-century
and the relationship with KS Partners founder Kambiz Shahbazi
dating back over a decade, Michael recounts in assessing a 2015
where her services were less in demand at Hamilton Co. whereas
Shahbazi’s legal matters were more frequent than most as his team
completed a variety of transactions, including multiple CRE
acquisitions (see story this section).
Hamilton Co. President Carl A. Valeri acknowledges Saul Ewing has
been
Saul Ewing Clients Enjoy Robust Year
continued on page 162
CONNECTOR PARK, LOWELL MA
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162 T H E A N N U A L R E V I E W THE REAL
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used less by the Allston-based firm over the past 18 months, with
acquisitions slower than normal for a firm that has shelled out
$500-million plus midway through the decade. Valeri says Hamilton
now is absorbing much of the product acquired, at times renovating
older stock and other times pursuing ground-up construction.
Because they are tapping into a $50 million KeyBank line of credit
to fund the development activities, Saul Ewing has not been needed
as if they would should permanent financing be sought, he ex-
plains, but when that is needed, Valeri pledges that Michael will
be the first lawyer engaged for the assignment. She is last on that
list as well, he stresses.
“We wouldn’t use anyone else,” Valeri says while recalling Michael
and he both began work- ing for Hamilton Co. at the same time 23
years ago while she was at Lane Altman & Owens LLP in the
office of Brown’s longtime attorney, Luci Vincent. When that
well-known CRE expert passed away, Michael was brought into the
fold, Valeri outlines in offering traits responsible for her
successful tenure. “Sally. is equitable, she is smart and she gets
things done—and I haven’t found many attorneys who can say all
that,” of- fers Valeri, adding, “We follow her wherever she
goes.”
Shahbazi has expressed similar sentiment, calling Michael “a true
friend and trusted advi- sor” who has followed his company’s
activities across multiple cycles, the latest displaying a re-
bounding nature that has given KS Partners an enhanced presence in
Boston’s inner suburbs out to Interstate 495. The momentum has
continued into 2016, with KS Partners paying $29 million for the
Highwood Office Park in Tewksbury from Equus Capital. “Highwood was
a wonderful transaction,” Michael recounts of the three-build- ing,
220,000-sf assemblage directly off I-495 which gives KS Partners a
cluster of major office parks in the northern tier, having in 2014
bought Brickstone Office Park in Andover and last year another
campus in Lowell, Connector Park.
“It is a very nice business relationship and a true friendship,”
Michael says of Shahbazi. As to Hamilton Co., she marvels at the
com- pany’s seamless switch to development mode that has a series
of mixed-use and multifamily projects underway or on the drawing
boards and expected to be in progress over the coming months. “They
have been slower in the (acqui- sitions) part, but they have a lot
of shovels in the ground, and it has been exciting to go by and see
the beautiful buildings they are devel- oping,” Michael says. And
when the time comes for the takeout financing, Michael will be more
than prepared, even teaching a class on perma- nent loans at the
MIT Center for Real Estate.
Another Saul Ewing attorney tapped into the regional CRE legal
scene is James H. Shulman, his clients including Albany Road Real
Estate Partners and R.J. Kelly Co., both of which turned to Shulman
as they launched major acquisition
initiatives from Maine to the southeastern US for Albany Road, this
year hitting $500 million in assets acquired after just four years.
R.J. Kelly is parlaying a family owned construction busi- ness into
a vertically integrated investment ma- chine that has been busy the
past three years, kicking it off with a $50 million purchase of a
first-class office building in Providence.
In 2015, R.J. Kelly spent $31 million for an- other high-end office
building at 100 Quannap- owitt Parkway in Wakefield, and thus far
in 2016 has acquired a Wilmington flex building at 326 Ballardvale
St. and a Route 128 office park in Lexington (see story, this
section). Albany Road was the winning bidder last year on a
five-build- ing industrial portfolio in Massachusetts har- vested
by Colony Realty Partners via Colliers International, and also
acquired self-storage in Connecticut and office product in
Maine.
HIGHWOOD OFFICE PARK, TEWKSBURY MA
SAUL EWING CLIENTS continued from page 59
200 SHUMAN AVE., STOUGHTON MA
“They are all absolutely doing great and keeping very busy.
”sally e. MiChael, saul ewinG llp, on her CRE clients
continued on page 163
T H E A N N U A L R E V I E W 163 THE REAL
Reporter®
Griffin Jr. Capital Markets team at Newmark, its principals Griffin
himself plus Vice Chair Edward C. Maher Jr. and Executive Managing
Director Matthew E. Pullen. The buyer in both instances was
homegrown Brady Sullivan Properties, with Director of Commercial
Real Estate Charles N. Panasis negotiating terms on its
behalf.
The bigger of the packages includes 410 and 472 Amherst St. in
Nashua, the former a first-class 68,250-sf office building
completed in 1983 and its companion a flex industrial structure
totaling 98,500 sf that came on line in 1982. Brady Sulli- van also
secured an amalgam of flex/office/ware- house at 22 Cotton Rd.,
that 153,700-sf asset branded the Birch Pond Business Center, which
is right off Route 3 at Exit 8 minutes from downtown and the Nashua
Airport. At that same exit can be found 15 Trafalgar Sq., a
high-end 36,700-sf of- fice building on 2.7 acres that commands
rents cresting $18 per sf. It was constructed in 1987. The Hudson
entry is 5 Wentworth Dr., which to- tals 140,000 sf of industrial
and office space in a building expanded by 63,000 sf in 2000.
RMR Group was Cushman & Wakefield’s client selling the assets
which closed in mid-No- vember. One is also in Nashua, that being
146- 150 Main St, while a second is at 2 Wall St. in Manchester and
the remainder are all in Con- cord, Capital Plaza I and II at 57
and 81 North Main St. and Eagle Square at One Eagle Sq. In a
separate transaction, C&W in mid-December harvested 32
Hampshire Rd. in Salem represent- ing 55 Heritage (Salem) LLC on
the sales side, that 95,000-sf flex industrial building yielding
$5.42 million, giving C&W an aggregate $34.4 million of assets
harvested in Q4.
“It was a very good year, especially at the end,” Farrelly
recounted in an interview. “It was kind of quiet at the beginning
but then every- thing really picked up and we were at right to the
end.” The assets in question got plenty of interest from outside
capital but they proved no match on the portfolios to the hometown
in-
vestor which has been on a buying spree in the Granite State this
decade. One thing that may have fueled their interest is the
scarcity of CRE in Greater Manchester. “People like New Hamp- shire
because you are only 40 minutes from Bos- ton but those who are
chasing yield can do deals that don’t have crazy low cap rates—what
you get for a three or a four (percent) in Boston, up here it’s a
seven or an eight.” The Catch 22: own- ers are reluctant to part
ways with their holdings,
relays Farrelly. “People are enjoying the leasing and they are very
reluctant to sell,” he says. “It’s not always easy to find things
to buy,”
Maybe that is also because Brady Sullivan has voraciously been
scooping up all comers, famously in 2014 paying $19.7 million for
900 Elm St. to go along with 1000 Elm St. and en- sure the firm has
the tallest building in New Hampshire with that 20-story structure.
It has since been branded Brady Sullivan Plaza. u
C&W AWARD WINNING continued from page 44
TWO WALL ST., MANCHESTER NH
410 AMHERST ST., NASHUA NH
Richard D. Gass, who also represents a mul- titude of regional CRE
interests such as Equity Industrial Partners of Needham, among New
England’s biggest owners of flex and industri- al real estate. In
2015, EIP conquests included 200 Shuman Ave. in Stoughton, a
158,000-sf warehouse purchased from Prologis for $3.27 million and
financed with $4.2 million from Brookline Bank.
Joining Gass on that assignment was Saul Ewing attorney Joanne
Robbins, according to Norfolk County Registry of Deeds information.
Gass did not respond to inquiries regarding EIP or other activities
for his practice in 2015, and Michael also would not discuss terms
of specific transactions, although she did acknowledge the booming
Boston economy and solid real estate fundamentals has made for a
brisk stretch of business.
“They are all absolutely doing great and keep- ing very busy,” she
says. “It has been that way for
quite awhile, and while I do think some people feel we are nearing
the peak, the interest is still really strong, and I think it will
continue that way for the rest of the year.” In the end, Michael
says she relies on the travails of Hamilton Co. founder Brown, now
in his early nineties still at the helm where he has been for over
seven decades. “Har- old has been through five cycles,” she says,
offer- ing that, “he knows what they look like and he knows how to
treat them, and he’ll say, it’s just a cycle, everything will be
fine . . . and I am sure it will be whenever things do change.”
u
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