R.W. Holmes Realty Leases 55,000 SF in Two Cabot Road, Hudson, MA
Summer 2015 has proven a bountiful season at 2 Cabot Rd. where owner George K. Tonna signed two companies to fill over one- third of the 150,000-sf flex/office building in deals negotiated by exclusive leasing agent R.W. Holmes Realty Inc. Auto insurance broker Goji committed to 20,000 sf of while Butler Home Products has leased 35,000 sf.
Garry Holmes and Craig Johnston negotiated the Goji lease with JLL brokers Phil DeSimone and Rob Mahoney advising the tenant, a Westborough firm which operates a search engine comparing rates from major insurers. Holmes advised the landlord and Johnston Butler Home Products on their deal in which the California-based company is moving its regional office from Marlborough. A leading manufacturer and distributor of branded cleaning products, Butler has its own product and sells others including Black & Decker, Charmin, Clorox, Dawn and Mr. Clean.
Tonna, owner of K&L Realty, paid $3.87 million in Aug. 2010 for 2 Cabot Rd. and in Oct. 2014 acquired the abutting 65,575-sf 1 Cabot Rd. In promoting 2 Cabot Rd., Holmes cites immediate access to I- 495 and I-290 plus the building’s dramatic atrium lobby and tinted ribbon windows set on 18.4 acres of “a beautifully landscaped wood- ed campus,” but he stresses there is one proprietary aspect help- ing 2 Cabot Rd. fill all but 13,000 sf—Tonna himself, regarded by Holmes to be “the con- summate deal maker.”
“George does a very nice job getting people into his buildings, and he does a great job operating them,” relays Holmes. “You always feel good bringing a tenant to him because you know he is going to make them happy . . . he really wants them to do well.”
Tonna self-manages K&L’s assets and has his own construction crew to rein in costs. Those economies enable him to lease at a competitive rate, he says, explaining his approach is having a stable
tenant roster rather than holding out for maximum rent. Tonna lauds R.W. Holmes for the latest leases, with a renewal and expansion of an existing tenant, also completed. “It was great,” Tonna says of the productive summer, noting Butler was among the submarket’s biggest leases in 2015.