A joint venture of CBRE Investment Management, Leggat McCall Properties and Granite Properties has opened 40 Thorndike, a 475,000-square-foot mixed-use building in Cambridge, Mass. The property is the result of the conversion of the Edward J. Sullivan Courthouse and jail that came online in 1974.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance previously owned the asset, which was acquired fully vacant. After a decade in the making, the 20-story building now features 422,000 square feet of office space, 48 fully affordable residential apartments on the second and third floors, as well as ground-level retail space.
In September 2021, the developer obtained a $302 million construction loan originated by Bank OZK, according to CommercialEdge information. Other partners on the project included design firm Elkus Manfredi Architects and construction company John Moriarty & Associates.
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Featuring a new the terra cotta and glass facade, the high-rise also comprises a fitness center, childcare and meeting spaces, 362 parking spaces, a restaurant, 20,000 square feet of public outdoor space and a Zen-garden, along with a year-round open market. Additionally, the building is LEED and WELL Gold certified and has a green roof.
The Class A property at 40 Thorndike St. is close to Kendall Square and less than 2 miles from downtown Cambridge. Downtown Boston is within 3 miles, while the Boston Logan International Airport is some 5 miles east.
According to CommercialEdge’s Conversion Feasibility Index that offers insight into the viability of repurposing office properties in various markets, Boston ranks high, with 11.8 percent of its inventory demonstrating excellent potential for conversion with very few challenges.
Boston’s life science pipeline leads the nation
Boston’s office market has been dominated by the life science sector. The metro saw 10.1 million square feet of lab space come online since the start of 2020, according to the latest CommercialEdge office report, with 8.2 million square feet of life science space underway at the end of August, leading nationwide.
In August, Tishman Speyer topped out the 440,000-square-foot lab component of the Harvard Enterprise Research Campus in Allston, Mass. The first phase of the mixed-use campus broke ground in November and is expected to come online in the first quarter of 2026.
A few months earlier, WS Development completed 400 Summer St., a 630,000-sqaure-foot life science building in the Seaport district. Foundation Medicine is using the property as its headquarters.