The 495/North submarket extends along Route 495 north and northwest of Boston and includes the towns of Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen, North Andover, Andover, Tyngsborough, Lowell, Tewksbury, Chelmsford, Westford, Littleton, Boxborough, Acton and Maynard. The submarket has long been home to many telecom and high technology companies and boasts an attractive and highly skilled labor force for that sector. In addition, the market’s proximity to Southern New Hampshire offers employees and employers additional labor and job options. Among the technology companies that anchor the 495/North office market are IBM, Lucent Technologies, Cisco Systems, Sonus Networks and Kronos Incorporated.
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The 495/North office market posted the second highest net absorption volume in the suburbs this quarter, 22,955 square feet, increasing year-to-date net absorption to 134,863 square feet. Unlike many of the other suburban office markets, the 495/North market maintained steady leasing activity, albeit from smaller, price sensitive tenants. Class A space options provide value for these tenants due to the competitive quality of space and lower asking rents compared to product in surrounding suburban markets. Consequently, three times as much Class A space has been absorbed than Class B space year-to-date, 204,575 square feet and (100,816) square feet respectively.
Recent sublease and future available space additions to the market pushed the availability rate up slightly to 26.2 percent. Even so, availability remains at its lowest level in six years. The vacancy rate also declined, 20.7 percent versus 22.5 percent at year-end 2007.
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LEASE
Conmed Corp.
1 Executive Drive, Chelmsford 27,911 SF
Relocation
Sentillion
40 Shattuck Road, Andover 27,700 SF
Renewal
John Hancock
138 River Road, Andover 22,934 SF
Renewal w/ Expansion
SALE
55 Ferncroft Road, Danvers May 2008
$12,350,000 ($120/SF) 103,272 SF
100 Potash Hill Road, Tyngsborough
August 2007
$2,100,000 ($62/SF)
34,024 SF
10 Lyberty Way, Westford
July 2007
$11,500,000 ($110/SF) 104,711 SF
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