Newbury Street News Flashback
By Joe Clements

BOSTON—Think of this update as a warm-up for Memorial Day and other remembrance mnemonics. Loyal Real Reporter readers will recall an April 8th issue detailing the rumored acquisition of two more Newbury Street commercial properties by the voracious duo of Taurus Investments and UrbanMeritage, assets that would bring to 18 the number of Newbury Street buildings owned by the locally based partnership. The story included acknowledgement from UrbanMeritage principal Michael T. Jammen that the venture was recapitalizing to raise $200 million for a fund intent on expanding its Newbury Street portfolio despite recent woes that have increased vacancies and muted consumer spending.

In the article, Jammen declined comment on rumors that 111-115 and 127-129 Newbury St. were the initial targets of the new fund, and that Federal Realty Investment Trust had agreed to take over the financing role heretofore held by Anglo-Irish Bank that has resulted in $130 million of Newbury Street product owned by the partnership under the branded Newbury Line. Anglo-Irish has since been hit by a series of financial woes of a catastrophic nature, making its future participation unlikely.

Regardless of that bank’s difficulties, it appears the market missives on Taurus and UrbanMeritage were accurate, as evidenced by this week’s closing of 111-115 and 127-129 Newbury St. for an aggregate of $17.4 million, well below the $26.7 million former owner Kimco Realty of New York City had paid in two separate purchases completed in 2007 at the height of Boston’s CRE sales boom.

Not only were the reports on prospective targets correct, so too is the rumored involvement of Federal Realty, which provided $8.7 million to finance the acquisitions in two separate mortgages. The larger was $4,673,500 for the $9,175,000 purchase of 111-115 Newbury St., while the REIT backed Taurus and UrbanMeritage with $4,112,500 to secure 127-129 Newbury St. for $8,275,000.