LaSalle joint venture buys empty six-floor building in Boston

LaSalle Investment Management and L3 Capital have bought a large mixed-use property in Boston’s central business district (CBD).

The companies plan to refurbish the 77,000sqft building which has been empty for some time.

LaSalle said its US value-add fund LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VII bought a majority equity interest in 399 Washington Street, a six-storey building in the Downtown Crossing submarket of Boston.

Earlier this year, IPE Real Estate reported that LaSalle had raised $460m for the fund from investors that include Korea Teachers Pension.

The purchase was completed via the fund’s joint venture with L3 Capital, which will act as the operating partner.

Colliers International has been retained as leasing agent.

The building, known as DTX399, was once a Barnes & Noble bookshop, and has been bought from its long-term owner Robert Posner.

LaSalle said the building was highly visible in Boston, being in the city’s “heavily-trafficked” Washington Street corridor, and offered “an ideal footprint for prospective retail and creative office users”.

Tim Phair, co-founder and managing principal of L3 Capital, said: “Boston’s DTX399 has long been on our radar as an incredible repositioning opportunity, and we are eager to begin working with our partners at LaSalle Investment Management to bring our vision for the building to life.”

LaSalle said the deal was for the fifth asset the company had bought in the Greater Boston area since 2015.