Worcester Business Journal

16 Worcester Business Journal | December 23, 2024 | wbjournal.com A tale of two towers ECONOMIC FORECAST 2023 Office The Mercantile Center was taken over by Franklin Realty Advisors in 2015. The Glass Tower was purchased by Synergy Investments in 2019. BY CHRISTINE LAVOSKY Special to WBJ W orcester's two tallest office buildings have had quite the wild ride over the past 10 years, taking very different paths to again becoming premier destinations for companies wanting to be located downtown. e Mercantile Center, which is ac- tually three buildings at 100-120 Front St., has achieved the highest occupancy rate in its history, at 98% leased. is came aer developer Chip Norton and his Franklin Realty Advisors in Welles- ley took over the complex in 2015 and have since invested $90 million in renovations. e Glass Tower at 446 Main St. has taken a far rockier route. At one time beset by an onerous lease with Santander Bank of Boston and ham- strung at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the building was bought by Boston real estate firm Synergy Investments using a new federal tax incentive. Today, Synergy is adding amenities to attract tenants and just landed 110-year-old law firm Bowditch & Dewey, bring- ing the building's total occupancy to nearly 80%. "One of the big- gest things [com- mercial tenants] want is amenities because you have to make the space nice for people to say, 'Yeah I'd like to go back to work,'" said Jim Umphrey, president of Worcester real estate brokerage Kelle- her & Sadowsky, which has handled sales and leases for both properties. Becoming The Mercantile Center When Franklin Realty took over the property at 100 Front St. in 2015, it wasn't even branded as e Mercantile Center. Part of Norton's $90-million renovation of the facility was fixing up the common area on the first floor, which he decided to leave as open space so it could serve as somewhat of a community-gathering place, similar to how it was as part of the old Worces- ter Center Galleria mall. By Norton's own admission, this is unusual for an office building, but this decision added a communal atmo- sphere to the space, where people like students from the nearby MCPHS University could hang out. "I felt that we could do more for the community, be more of a public space ... that anybody could access and use," said Norton. "We have students peri- odically come over and use our lobbies for studying and meetings, as do a lot of the other tenants in the building." Commercial tenants at e Mercan- tile Center include the two largest law firms in Central Massachusetts: Mirick O'Connell and Fletcher Tilton. Overall, the complex boasts 457,000 square feet of mixed-use space, a 1,647-space structured park- ing garage, five onsite eateries, and an outdoor plaza. "We still have 50-60,000 feet of retail [space] that we're working on both [the] first floor and below grade [at] the old Foothills eater," said Norton. Improving The Glass Tower While Norton took over e Mercantile Center during a period of economic growth, Synergy took over e Glass Tower mere months before the coronavirus pandemic and was hit hard by difficult lease terms during an uncertain time globally for office space, said Umphrey. "You kind of couldn't make it up," Umphrey said. At one time, Sovereign Bank owned e Glass Tower. Upon its purchase, the bank, which was later acquired by Santander, realized it was undercap- italized, he said. Sovereign decided to do sale-leaseback on the building, where it would remain obligated as the tenant of the whole building and for subleasing the spaces it wasn't using. Santander had much of the con- trol over how the rest of the building would be leased and improved, Um- phrey said. Synergy bought e Glass Tower in October 2019, only five months before the coronavirus pandemic hit. e Mercantile Center and e Glass Tower are on parallel trajectories, and different timelines, in seeking to become go-to destinations for office tenants seeking downtown amenities Jim Umphrey, pres- ident of Kelleher & Sadowsky Chip Norton, managing director of Franklin Realty Advisors The Mercantile Center includes a large out- door gathering space between its main tower and parking garage. PHOTOS | WBJ FILE PHOTO | COURTESY OF FRANKLIN REALTY ADVISORS

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