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Conveniently located between Boston and Providence, with excellent highway access to and from Greater Boston, Central Massachusetts and the entire Southern New England region via Interstates 495 and 95, the 495/South submarket emerged as popular, though still small commercial location in the mid-1980s.  Towns in the submarket include Foxboro, Franklin, Lakeville, Mansfield, Milford, Millis, North Attleboro, Norton, Raynham, Taunton and Wrentham.
The market is home to many warehouse, distribution, and manufacturing facilities and has a high availability of undeveloped land, as well as quality, low-cost and large R&D and industrial facilities.

The 495/South office market remained quiet during the second quarter of the year with only minor activity to report. That said, most of the activity this quarter stemmed from new lease signings, not the arrival of new space options, and the market was able to record 20,414 square feet of positive net absorption. A handful of lease transactions at the Franklin Oaks Office Park at 124 Grove Street in Franklin accounted for much of the activity this quarter. Kimberly-Clark signed a lease for 13,427 square feet; E/PRO expanded by additional 7,000 square feet from its current 3,800 square feet; and IDS agreed to occupy 2,800 square feet in the building.

Despite a lull in activity, the market has quietly strung together four consecutive quarters of positive net absorption. The boost to the market’s fundamentals has been minor however, as all four quarters have netted a range of 12,000 to 20,000 square feet of positive net absorption. While positive absorption has been marginal, it is also interesting to note that all three Route 495 markets recorded positive net absorption this quarter while simultaneously all the inner Route 128 markets recorded negative net absorption. This may be a sign that tenants seeking value and large blocks of back office space are now considering the outer suburban markets as a low cost alternative to the inner suburbs that have experienced considerable rent growth in the last few years.

LEASE

Kimberly-Clark

124 Grove Street, Franklin

13,427 SF

New Relocation

Waste Management

575 West Street, Mansfield 13,268 SF

Renewal

Alliason Group

603 West Street, Mansfield 6,939 SF

New Relocation

SALE

95 Bedford Street, Middleborough

November 2007

$9,050,000 ($155/SF)

58,510 SF

440 & 470 Myles Standish Blvd, Taunton

August 2007

$10,160,000 ($136/SF)

74,800 SF

20 Cabot Boulevard, Mansfield

May 2007

$2,000,000 ($22/SF)

90,010 SF