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Minardi Limited Partnership: 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard
Minardi Limited Partnership (Minardi) is a family run real estate property management firm with four decades of experience owning and operating companies in Central Massachusetts.
In 2018, Minard purchased two office buildings within the 50-acre Solomon Pond Park on Donald Lynch Boulevard in Marlborough. The transaction included a three story, 116,000 square foot multi-tenant office building at 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard and a 9,257 square foot daycare facility at 150 Donald Lynch Boulevard from the Nordblom Company for $13.068 million.
Strategically located near the I-495/I-290 interchange and ten minutes from the Mass Pike, these two first-class office buildings represented attractive investment opportunities for Minardi. In particular, the three-story 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard office building possessed great curb appeal and quality, modern finishes left behind from Western Digital (Sandisk).
At the time of purchase, 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard was 95% occupied with tenants including Brookfield Power, Western Digital and ReWalk Robotics. In a statement, Mario Minardi, a partner with Minaridi Limited Partnership, said the sale represented a unique opportunity, especially given the limited availability of high-quality, well stabilized investment property.
August 2020: Minardi Retains Kelleher & Sadowsky to Represent 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard
Two years later, circumstances had changed with only 55% of the building leased. Brookfield Power, the major tenant occupying the third floor, was due to vacate in less than 24 months. The prospect of an occupancy rate of 30% was looming.
It was under these challenging circumstances that Minardi decided to retain the team of Philip DeSimone, Andrew Sherman and Brian Johnson at Kelleher & Sadowsky to market and lease the more than 100,000 square feet of available office space at 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard.
First steps with this listing involved the Kelleher team performing a SWOT analysis to understand the property’s strengths and weaknesses. During the process, the necessary steps involved to overcome the weaknesses and take advantage of the strengths were identified.
A comprehensive sales and marketing program was prepared targeting prospective tenants considering relocation in the MetroWest region. Sales materials highlighting the building’s convenient location and abundant amenities were prepared.
However, gaining traction with leasing efforts would prove difficult. The office real estate market was at a standstill with COVID-19 in full swing and companies trying to determine what the future of office work looked like post-pandemic.
After several months of casting a wide net aimed at potential tenants, the Kelleher & Sadowsky team believed that a new sales and marketing approach was needed for leasing efforts to be successful.
Early 2021: Kelleher & Sadowsky Advises Minardi to “Pivot and Reposition”
Recommendation: Reposition First Two Floors as Lab Conversion-Ready
During the pandemic, venture capital and private equity investments served as rocket fuel for biotech and pharmaceutical companies looking to grow their companies as fast as possible to find the next vaccine or therapy. As a result, the life sciences segment was one of the few bright lights in the commercial real estate industry during this challenging time.
The City of Marlborough was already positioning itself as an affordable alternative to Boston and Cambridge by touting its “Platinum Bioready” rating by Mass Bio. Along and nearby Donald Lynch Boulevard, the business community was transforming beyond an entertainment and shopping destination to an emerging life sciences community, including Akoya Bioscience, New England Cryogenics and Sunovian.
The Kelleher team believed that the first two floors at Donald Lynch with its spacious and sleek reception and beautiful finishes were ideally suited for a R&D / laboratory space conversion.
Recommendation: Reposition the Third Floor as Call Center-Ready
When Brookfield Power gave notice that it would be vacating 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard by mid-2022, it notified Minardi that it would be leaving behind its state-of-the art, mission critical call center infrastructure.
The Kelleher team believed that they could successfully target companies in the region that could benefit from having a plug-and-play 24/7 mission critical control center in place.
Recommendation: Pivot Sales and Marketing Efforts Immediately
Armed with a new strategy to target biopharma companies and firms needing mission critical telecommunications infrastructure, sales and marketing efforts were adjusted accordingly.
Broker outreach and building canvassing efforts were narrowed to a smaller community of biopharma companies and service firms who could benefit from the plug ‘n play nature of a call center ready to go. Messaging on sales collateral, video marketing and email marketing broadcasts were fine tuned. 
Early 2022: Sartorius Leases 63,000 Square Feet
A key component with Kelleher sales and marketing efforts is our aggressive canvassing of a variety of buildings in the region. We believe our “feet on the street” approach to marketing separates us.
One of the buildings that we canvassed was 450 Donald Lynch Boulevard. We knew that one of its tenants, WaterSep BioSeparations had been acquired a few months earlier by Sartorius Stedim Biotech, one of the largest bioprocess vendors in the world. During our canvassing visit, we met with the head of operations at WaterSep, who was eager to learn about how 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard building was in the process of converting the office building to lab space.
We learned that Sartorius was looking to expand its operations in Massachusetts. Sartorius already operated its bioprocess solutions division in Cambridge and its Customer Interaction Center (CIC) nearby at 150 Locke Drive in Marlborough. After its acquisition of WaterSep, the timing could not be better for Sartorius that a first-class office building nearby to WaterSep and its CIC was available for conversion to lab space.
The Kelleher team contacted Sartorius’ tenant representatives at Boston-based CBRE about 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard and its ability to convert to lab space. Together, the Kelleher and CBRE teams were able to orchestrate a successful lease agreement for 63,000 square feet on the first two floors with Sartorius spending over $20 million to convert the property from office to lab.
Summer 2022: Lifeline Systems Company Leases 41,375 Square Feet
With laser-focus, the Kelleher team identified companies in the region who could benefit from the call center infrastructure that Brookfield Power was leaving behind on the third floor of 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard.
Through email outreach to the brokerage community, Lifeline Systems Company in Framingham was identified as a potential tenant. Lifeline, a provider of personal response services (PERS) and emergency call systems, enabling seniors to have two-way communications with assistance professionals, was interested in moving both its office headquarters and medical alert-response center.
Contact was made with Lifeline’s tenant representatives at Colliers International in Boston about taking the former Brookfield Power space. Together, the Kelleher and Colliers International teams were able to orchestrate a successful multi-year tenant lease of 41,375 square feet on the third floor at 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard in Marlborough, MA. by Lifeline Systems Company.
200 Donald Lynch Boulevard Completely Leased
One year after its “pivot and repositioning,” the team at Kelleher & Sadowsky was able to lease more than 100,000 square feet of space.
In one of the slowest office markets in recent history, the office building at 200 Donald Lynch Boulevard in Marlborough is now 100% leased.