On May 2, several dozen ULI Boston/New England members had the opportunity to tour the new Southline adaptive reuse development at the former site of the Boston Globe newspaper and hear from a panel involved in the project’s development. The 750,000 square foot campus, located on 16.6 acres at 135 Morrissey Boulevard in Boston, includes lab space, creative office, retail, and numerous amenities. 

During the panel discussion, Kris Galletta, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at Nordblom Company, noted that as the former home of Boston Globe, the building and its location had a lot of history and power associated with it. It pre-dated the Southeast Expressway and served as a cornerstone to Dorchester. The site is well-located, driven off transit access on the MBTA’s Red Line with connectivity into downtown Boston and Kendall Square with an employee base of young professionals in South Boston and Dorchester. In considering whether to keep the building or to tear it down and create something else, Nordblom “wanted to be respectful of the building’s history and the energy it created… it’s a creative engine offering huge inherent value,” said Galletta. 

Tamara Roy, Principal at Stantec, explored the recent history of neighborhood planning, noting that the 2011 Columbia Point Master Plan did not involve the Boston Globe building. “The space had been designed for machinery more than people,” noted Roy.  “Our whole team was completely energized by the raw material we had to work with. The original style of factory architecture was incorporated into the new design, respecting history and bringing it into today.” The design team worked to ensure that the Southline space would be a place of social connection, with people and with the neighborhood.  

Colleen Arria, Principal at Stantec, noted that “Interior design is very personal… people will experience the spaces we create for them at a personal level. Here, the atrium houses heartbeat of this project.” With the atrium space accessible to public, the design team wanted people to see others eating, interacting, with all activity spinning off the creative 4-story space.  

Steve Purpura, President of Beacon Life Science at Beacon Capital Partners, spoke about acquisition of the project from Nordblom in 2021, noting that the building included 750,000 square feet on 4 floors, “a skyscraper on its side with a real variability of space tied together by the atrium. We wanted a signature building in this market…What we saw was accessibility to labor. We believe the south side of Boston is a very interesting location for the life sciences.”  

The scale of the project gave Beacon Capital Partners the opportunity to invest in amenities. “We are firm believers in the flight to quality. …this is a compelling offering in the market,” said Purpura. “This is some of the coolest office space that has been delivered. You could never do this ground-up. It’s uniquely positioned to cast a very wide net.”  

The panel and tour were followed by a reception in the atrium, with CBRE sponsoring the event.