BROOKLINE—The landscape is unlikely to change for awhile, but a pair of recent real estate purchases in Brookline Village are raising eyebrows as to what the future may hold largely due to the well-known real estate players involved, most recently Fan Pier developer Joseph Fallon plunking down $2.9 million for a Dunkin’ Donuts at 20 Boylston St., that all cash purchase following up on the separate $5.6 million acquisition of a Gulf Station at 25 Washington St., dubbed in a prior Real Reporter article as one of the best sites in metropolitan Boston by its brokers at Boston Realty Advisors, a notion shared by its new owner, Elias Patoucheas of Claremont Cos.

“It is an excellent property,” he tells Real Report this week in citing close proximity to the Longwood Medical Area as one factor, as well as the vibrancy of Brookline Village where Claremont Cos. is putting the finishing touches on a three-story, 130-room Homewood Suites that will open this spring across the street from the Fallon purchase. While stressing that zoning relief will be required, Patoucheas says his firm aims to build a 170-room Hilton Garden Inn at the Gulf station which is at the corner of Brookline Avenue.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” says Patoucheas, who praises the community for their support of the Homewoods venture tucked onto the narrow site where a cab company once kept its fleet. Claremont has another hotel underway in Bridgewater and owns other hospitality properties in Connecticut and southern Florida.

Boston Realty Advisors principal Jason Weissman says both 25 Washington St. and 20 Boylston St. were pursued by bidders based on their development potential, although he referred inquiries about any plans to the buyers themselves, with the Fallon Co. not responding to phone calls as of press deadline. “They are gateway locations to the Longwood Medical Area, and that did not go unnoticed,” says Weissman, further pointing out that Children’s Hospital has targeted Brookline Village to accommodate growth from its base in the ever-tight LMA where some of the world’s leading hospitals and research facilities are located within a 10-minute walk of Brookline Village and also accessible via the MBTA Green Line connecting to downtown Boston and Cambridge.

For the time being, little change may be in store for either site, with the Dunkin’ Donuts a popular destination among coffee aficionados and Claremont working through the neighborhood process up the street. To Patoucheas, however, there is capacity to support 300 rooms from his two sites, pointing to only a handful of competitors from the Fenway to Brookline’s Coolidge Corner.

BRA was broker on both Dunkin’ Donuts and the Gulf parcel, with retail ace Michael d’Hemecourt overseeing 20 Boylston St. with support from the firm’s capital markets platform that includes Weissman and debt expert Nicholas Herz. Suburban market leader and partner Jeremy Freid, SIOR, was also brought in to assist in drumming up prospects for the properties. Both had been held longterm by their owners, the owners of 20 Boylston St. since inheriting the property in 1983.

“We are excited for being able to help the sellers take advantage of today’s demand for urban real estate,” Weissman says of the Dunkin’ Donuts clients, “and we congratulate the buyer, who was fantastic to work with all the way to the successful result.”

The 1,700-sf retail store is set on a 12,125-sf parcel at the corner of High Street and Boylston Street (Route 9) and carries an FAR of 2.0. Dunkin’ Donuts does have a lease expiration pending for this June.

For the original article please visit The Real Reporter.