Bulfinch Triangle building sells for $15M

An investment management firm has purchased an office building in Boston’s Bulfinch Triangle at a steep discount.

Rhino Capital Advisors bought the building at 110 Canal Street from Alcion Ventures and Quaker Lane Capital for $14.6 million, just two years after it was sold for $24 million, the Boston Business Journal reported.

The 63,000-square-foot building, which has some retail space, traded for about $232 per square foot.

The brick-and-beam building, once the headquarters of architecture firm CBT, was vacated in 2021 when CBT moved to Charlestown. Rhino Capital Advisors’ managing principal, Michael Olson, did not disclose the firm’s future plans for the building, leaving open the possibility of a residential conversion. Rhino’s portfolio includes industrial warehouses, apartments, condos, and flex or research-and-development spaces, with no classification for office properties.

Bulfinch Triangle office buildings are eligible for tax breaks under Mayor Michelle Wu’s office-to-residential conversion program, if the new owner opts for such a transformation. The area is facing high office vacancies, with almost a third of the 3.4 million square feet of office space around North Station and the waterfront available for rent as of the third quarter, according to CBRE.

Property owners and developers, led by the RMR Group, are advocating for the rezoning of Bulfinch Triangle to permit taller buildings, where zoning restricts heights to 100 feet, and to allow residential uses by right. Mayor Wu has initiated a broader initiative to rezone various areas in the city, but it remains unclear if and when Bulfinch Triangle will be included. The rezoning effort has faced opposition from residents in the Bulfinch neighborhood.

The Boston office market has been thawing, though at significantly reduced prices, in the past six months.

In September, Real estate firm Synergy Investments purchased One Liberty Square, a 13-story office building in the Financial District of downtown Boston, for $45 million, which is a 17 percent decrease from the building’s value a decade ago, the Boston Globe reported. 

In November, local firm City Realty Group bought 186 Lincoln Street for $11 million, or about $150 per square foot, marking a significant drop from its previous sale price of $20.7 million eight years ago, the Boston Business Journal reported. 

—Ted Glanzer

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