Bedford Business Park Lands LifeCare Lease

BEDFORD, MA-The deals continue to flow here at Bedford Business Park. Fresh on the heels of a major lease signed last month with iRobot Corp., landlord Boston Properties is preparing to welcome the regional division of LifeCare Centers of America, a nationally known nursing home operator that will take space at the park’s 14 Crosby Dr. The entity, LifeCare at Home of Massachusetts, will relocate in a fast-track move next week from the company’s current offices in adjacent Burlington.

According to Lincoln Property Co. broker Ned Halloran, who represented the tenant with colleague Gian Starita, “the goal was to stay as close as possible” to LifeCare at Home’s current facility to avoid employee disruption. The firm was also intent on finding quality space at a reasonable rate, and Halloran says Bedford Business Park was able to deliver on both counts. While the broker declined to offer specifics of the 11,000-sf deal beyond confirming it is a seven-year pact, rental rates for the Route 3 corridor are averaging $17.72 per sf, according to the latest figures from Jones Lang LaSalle. That is the lowest mark of any submarket tracked in the JLL survey, a review that puts the vacancy rate for the Bedford area at 22.7%.

The LifeCare pact is one of several tendered recently along the Route 3 corridor, and Halloran says he anticipates additional deals will be struck in the coming months. “It has been pretty hot lately,” he says, citing both a price differential from the core Route 128 market that Route 3 feeds into on its southern flank, plus an improving economy that is reviving the technology sector the area has been dependent on for the past several decades.

Besides Route 3 overall, Bedford Business Park has scored substantial interest from the tenant pool in recent months, with iRobot committing in August to 158,000 sf in a 12-year deal. Also last month, GlobeSt.com reported that a pair of technology related companies have agreed to move into the 22-acre, 470,000-sf complex. Zink Imaging supposedly will take about 60,000 sf in Building 4G, while Citrix Systems will occupy 50,000 sf in 14 Crosby Dr. All together, the recent activity at Bedford Business Park approaches 300,000 sf of leasing.

Thus far, officials at Boston Properties have not responded to inquiries about commitments for Bedford Business Park. As in the case of the Zink Imaging and Citrix Systems rumors, calls to Boston Properties regarding LifeCare at Home were not returned by press deadline. Stacey Baker negotiated the LifeCare lease in-house on behalf of the landlord, according to Lincoln.