MetroWest495 Biz

18 MetroWest495 Biz | October 2014 i t wasn't that long ago that the real estate market along Interstate 495 was all but written off as dead, with seemingly far too many empty office buildings to fill and little interest on anyone's part to sink money into them. I-495 corridor drawing investor traffic as rents rse along Route 128 The Great Recession certainly took its toll, but the blows came raining down after that, with, for example, Fidelity Investments putting its Marlborough campus on the market in 2011 as it moved 1,100 workers to other locations. But three years later, the entire region is well on its way to recovery, with a real estate rebound starting to take hold up and down the I-495 corridor. And real estate investors who couldn't be found a few years ago along I-495 are now back with a vengeance, scooping up office and industrial buildings, from Chelmsford down to Foxborough. Some of the sales are being driven by bargain hunting, with prices soaring on the Route 128 corridor, forcing real estate companies and investors to go west to find a deal. But buyers are also motivated by the desire to get in now so they can capture higher prices – and rents – down the line, not a sentiment many shared about the I-495 market back during the dark days of 2009, real estate executives say. "It's a good time to buy real estate out there," said Philip DeSimone, a managing director for commercial real estate broker Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), in Boston. "Rents are pick- ing up along 128 and in Natick and Framingham and that wave just keeps coming out to 495." Demand for office and industrial properties along I-495 has increased steadily throughout 2014, with 20 significant sales Tenants for the interstate P h o t o / c o u R t E s y Commercial real estate firm Campanelli recently renovated the Strawberry Hill Corporate Center in Acton to attract new tenants. The common area is shown here. BY sCoTT van voorhIs Special to MetroWest495Biz

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