Cross Point (Lowell, Massachusetts)

This article is about the Lowell office towers. For other uses, see Cross Point.
Cross Point
General information
Status Complete
Type Class A office building
Location Lowell, Massachusetts, USA
Address 900 Chelmsford Street Lowell, MA 01851
Coordinates 42°36′53″N 71°19′29″W / 42.61472°N 71.32472°W / 42.61472; -71.32472Coordinates: 42°36′53″N 71°19′29″W / 42.61472°N 71.32472°W / 42.61472; -71.32472
Owner Yale Properties USA
Divco West
Public Sector Pension Investment Board (Canada)
Height 168.93 feet (51.49 m)[1]

Cross Point is an office complex in Lowell, Massachusetts. Formerly named Wang Towers, it is a local landmark, dominating the busy intersection[2][3] of Interstate 495 (the Boston outer ring road) and U.S. Route 3. It is the third-tallest building in Lowell, after Three River Place and the Kenneth R. Fox Student Union at UMass Lowell.

The complex, consisting of three interconnected cement-clad 12-storey[4][Note 1] towers and other buildings totaling over 1,200,000 square feet (110,000 m2) situated on 15 acres (6.1 ha), was built by original sole tenant Wang Laboratories as its new world headquarters.[3]

Construction began in 1980, and it was completed in stages at a cost of US$60 million (about $147 million[5] in current dollars).[6][Note 2] The buildings served as a demonstration of the rise of Wang Labs and the Boston-area computer technology industry generally, and later as a sign of the rapid fall of the company and industry: Wang Labs entered bankruptcy in 1992, and the property was sold at bankruptcy auction in 1994 for a tiny fraction of its construction cost – $525,000 (about $838 thousand[5] in current dollars) – in 1994, to Louis Pellegrine,[6] fronting for Atlantic Retail Partners.[7]

Atlantic renovated the towers (with the help of tax breaks and a $4 million letter of credit from the City of Lowell)[8][9] and sold them in 1998 to San-Francisco-based Yale Properties USA and Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, reportedly for over $100 million.[7] The towers acquired new tenants, but business was hurt by the 2000-2001 bursting of the "dot-com bubble", and it was described as being, by 2005, a "ghost town"[10] with an occupancy rate of about 50%.[10]

Yale Properties bought out Blackstone's share in 2005; in the same year San-Diego-based Divco West Properties bought an interest in the property.[11] By 2007 the occupancy rate was back up to about 90%, with major tenants such as Motorola moving in.[10] Yale actively shopped the property, but a 2007 deal to sell it for about $180 million to a consortium led by Davis Marcus Partners[12] fell through. The real estate crash beginning in 2007 put severe strain on the property's finances,[13] but Yale and Divco West (along with Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board) retained ownership. In 2012 the towers were about 70% filled[14] and Colliers International was hired to boost occupancy.[14]

The towers were sold to CP Associates LLC for $100 Million in 2014.[15][3]

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cross Point Towers.

Notes

  1. ^ Some sources give 12 or 13 as the number of storeys. Yale Properties gives 14.

    2. Cross Point has a lobby that goes through all three towers. There are twelve floors, in all three towers, above the lobby.

  2. ^ Many sources give "$50 to $60 million" as the construction cost. The New York Times gives $60 million.

References

  1. ↑ "Cross Point Towers". Emporis. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Cross Point" (PDF). (Cross Point Lowell web site). Retrieved March 1, 2013. Daily on average, 40,000 vehicles pass Cross Point.
  3. 1 2 3 "Developer spends $100 million on former Wang towers in Lowell - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  4. ↑ "Cross Point". Properties. Yale Properties. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  5. 1 2 Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  6. 1 2 "COMPANY NEWS; Wang Headquarters Auctioned for $525,000". New York Times. February 17, 1994. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  7. 1 2 "Wang Towers team shifts focus onto development". Boston Business Journal. August 14, 2000. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  8. ↑ Stanton, Cathy (2006). The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-1558495470. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Successful Strategy: Cross Point". Lowell Development & Financial Corporation. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 "Lowell's Cross Point revived, back on block". Boston Business Journal. June 25, 2007. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Cross Point leases 285,000 square feet" (PDF). (press release). Gallen Neilly and Associates. October 24, 2006. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Agreement close for sale of former Wang Towers". Boston Business Journal. September 3, 2007. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Cross Point faces $86M debt reckoning". Boston Business Journal. August 16, 2010. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  14. 1 2 Joe Clements. "Colliers Gets the Call at Cross Point" (PDF). The Real Reporter. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  15. ↑ "Cross Point sells for $100 million". Lowell Sun. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
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