John Hancock Tower up for sale
The iconic John Hancock Tower in the Back Bay, designed by I.M. Pei and perhaps Boston's most widely known building, is going up for sale, about 3 1/2 years after Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners LLC bought the complex for $910 million.
Beacon Capital Partners, a rapidly expanding private real estate investment fund, confirmed yesterday that the company is selling a 10-building portfolio including buildings in Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Denver.
The buildings are hitting a market that appears to continue to be strong for top-quality properties that are well-leased, as the Hancock Tower is.
The Boston buildings for sale include 501 Boylston St. -- like the Hancock, a former insurance company's headquarters -- which the company purchased in 2002 and redeveloped.
The buildings being sold now are the remaining holdings in Beacon Capital Strategic Partners II, a fund that opened in December 2001 and raised $740 million from investors. Beacon Capital has developed two additional funds since Fund II, the last one generating about $2 billion for investment.
Beacon Capital will still have several buildings in Boston and the Boston area, though none with the prominence of the Hancock. Those include One Beacon Street and 200 State Street.
The Hancock complex, on Clarendon and Berkeley streets in the Back Bay, included the tower, two other office buildings, and a 900-car parking garage. It totaled more than a million square feet.
The mirrored, 60-floor Hancock Tower, built in the 1970s, was initially plagued by windows that fell out. But after that and other mechanical problems were resolved the building took its place at the top among Boston's office towers, literally and figuratively.
It is the tallest building in Boston, and some argue its most handsome, reflecting historic Trinity Church at Copley Square on its angled north side.
Beacon Capital is engaging the financial firms Eastdil and Morgan Stanley to market the portfolio. No asking price is expected to be set.
(By Thomas C. Palmer, Globe staff)
