Boston-Area Manufacturing Campus Lands $63M
An energy storage firm partially occupies the facility.
A partnership between Wheelock Street Capital and Camber Development has received $62.5 million in financing for 44 Middlesex Turnpike, a 23.4-acre advanced manufacturing campus in Bedford, Mass. Blue Light Capital provided the bridge loan in a deal arranged by JLL.
The property consists of a 148,458-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility, along with a 12.3-acre pad-ready development site entitled for an additional 147,000 square feet. Upon completion of the second phase, the campus will total 295,000 square feet of advanced manufacturing space.
The first building was completed at the end of 2024 and is currently 32 percent leased to Fourth Power, an energy sustainability and grid resilience company.
READ ALSO: Biggest Construction Projects in Boston
44 Middlesex Turnpike was purpose-built for advanced manufacturing users, with 36- to 40-foot clear heights in high-bay areas, 8,600 amps of power per building, flexible mezzanine space with 20-foot clear heights, 40- by 40-foot column spacing and six loading docks per building. In addition, a reinforced roof structure accommodates rooftop mechanical systems, providing flexibility for tenants requiring specialized buildouts.
The JLL Capital Markets team that arranged the financing was led by Senior Managing Directors Brett Paulsrud and Steve Klein, Director Ryan Parker, Vice President Hugh Doherty and Analyst Libby Horton.
In a prepared statement, Paulsrud described the facility as potentially attractive to companies in the robotics, energy storage, semiconductor and climate technology sectors.
Boston manufacturing remains strong
According to JLL, the Boston region has seen substantial growth in demand from advanced manufacturing tenants over the last 12 months, accelerated by venture capital investment in the robotics, aerospace and defense, energy storage and climate technology, semiconductor, 3D printing, medical device and biomanufacturing sectors.
In contrast to a contraction of jobs in education and health services and professional and business services, the Boston area’s manufacturing sector has posted modest year-over-year gains, according to a second-quarter report from Colliers.
The report added that although distribution properties totaled about $1.2 billion in sales volume across Greater Boston over the same period, “flex and manufacturing assets continue to trade more selectively.” Manufacturing space in the region has a total availability of 10.3 percent, a bit under the figure for high-bay warehouse and flex properties, Colliers reported.
Another Boston-area industrial facility in development is National Development’s 148-acre project in Hudson, Mass. Plans call for a 950,000-square-foot campus, which will take shape at the site of a former Intel manufacturing campus.
You must be logged in to post a comment.