Michael Greiner, Vistaprint’s CAO.
Thomas Grillo
Real Estate Editor- Boston Business Journal
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With millions of square feet of available office space in Greater Boston, Vistaprint had lots of choices when it came to deciding on a location for a new, expanded U.S. headquarters.
The publicly-traded marketing products provider that employs 900 workers had hoped to expand in Lexington where they are housed in 204,000 square feet of space at Two Ledgemont Center on Hayden Avenue.
But an expansion plan fell through when Related Beal, owner of One Ledgemont Center at 99 Hayden Ave., filed an appeal to the town’s issuance of a building permit on what would have been a new 150,000-square-foot Vistaprint (Nasdaq: VPRT) building.
That dispute could have delayed construction beyond 2015 when Vistaprint’s lease was up. As a result, negotiations commenced with Vistaprint’s landlord, Hobbs Brook Management, on another parcel in Waltham.
Under the new plan, Hobbs Brook Management will construct a 300,000-square-foot build-to-suit headquarters in Waltham. The new facility would be a five-story building replacing an existing two-story property at 275 Wyman St.
“When the deal fell through in Lexington, we had to start our search again,” said Michael Greiner, Vistaprint’s chief accounting officer. “But we wanted to stay in this 128 corridor where we’ve had good recruiting success. And from a rent versus value standpoint, we think 128 gives us that too. If we moved to Boston, we’d be paying in the high $50s, $60s and even $70s per square foot for some spaces and that math doesn’t work for us.”
The 11-year lease is expected to be signed in the next two weeks. Greiner won’t say how much rent they will pay, but he said it is considerably more than the average rent of $27.63 that Cassidy Turley reported in their second quarter report for Waltham.
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