Sale-lease back of suburban Boston industrial building trades for $4.15M

BOSTON, June 13, 2022 – JLL Capital Markets announced today that it has closed the $4.15 million sale-lease back and arranged the acquisition financing for 41 Leona Dr., a 30,050 square-foot industrial building in the Boston suburb of Middleborough, Massachusetts.

JLL represented the seller, Butler Automation, in the sale to Lincoln Property Company. In addition, JLL worked on behalf of the buyer to secure the three-year, fixed-rate loan with Centreville Bank.

Butler Automatic currently occupies the entire building and will continue to lease back the property. The one-story building, which was originally built in 1998, features three dock doors, 23-foot clear heights and 37-foot column spacing.

41 Leona Dr. is located within the 1.8 million square-foot Campanelli Industrial Park. The property has convenient access to Interstate 495, allowing for quick distribution throughout Southern New England, including Boston, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

The asset is benefited by its position in the 495 South Industrial Market as vacancies have reached all-time lows across all sub-product types. As of the end of Q1, vacancy rates had dropped to 2%, applying immense upward pressure on rental rates across the entire market. Just within the Campanelli Industrial Park, the vacancy rate sits at 1.5% as there is only one availability of 26,000 square feet.

The JLL Capital Markets Investment Sales and Advisory team representing the seller was led by Director Lenny Pierce, Senior Director Michael Restivo and Associate David Coffman.

“This was a great opportunity for Butler Automatic to capitalize on a historically competitive industrial market, and also for LPC to add yet another high-quality flex/manufacturing asset to their portfolio,” said Pierce.

The JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory team representing the borrower was led by Director Amy Lousararian.

JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment and sales advisory, debt advisory, equity advisory or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,000 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

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Butler Automatic Inc. was founded in 1956 by Richard A. Butler, Jr. as a manufacturer of “zero speed” web splicing equipment. As the original inventor of zero speed splicing technology, Butler splicing equipment redefined performance and reliability over a broad spectrum of industries and markets.

Today Butler is a leading multinational manufacturer with over 17,000 units installed worldwide and continues to be the industry benchmark for quality, reliability and customer support. The company’s products are used in numerous applications including packaging, sleeving, thermo-forming, over-wrapping, printing, and a variety of converting operations. Butler’s splicers are used to manufacture many different products, including stand-up pouches, flexible pouches, film bags, paper bags, business forms, envelopes, disposable diapers, wallpaper, fiberglass insulation and corrugated cardboard.

Company headquarters and manufacturing operations are located in Middleborough, Massachusetts approximately 30 miles south of Boston. The Middleborough facility is a state of the art manufacturing operation. Butler Automatic is proud to have achieved ISO 9001:2015 Certification. The company’s quality and engineering is dedicated to developing new technologies for the packaging industry.

Lincoln Property Company, founded in 1965, is a national commercial real estate company involved in real estate investment, development, property management and leasing worldwide. Lincoln has offices in all major markets of the U.S. and throughout Europe. Lincoln’s cumulative development efforts have produced over 130 million square feet of commercial space. For more information on Lincoln Property Company’s Boston office, visit: www.LPCBoston.com.