Chelmsford Printing Firm Triples Lease Space
A Chelmsford printing company is moving within town next week to occupy about three times as much space to support its growth during the past few years.
ImPress Systems Inc., which started in Billerica 11 years ago, moved to Chelmsford five years ago but has since outgrown its home base. The company is moving into 7,400 square feet of space at 7 Stuart Rd. in Chelmsford, into a 54,000-square-foot commercial and industrial flex building.
Officials with ImPress said the deal was surprisingly difficult to finalize, given that the five-person company needed a relatively small, flexible space. Those are hard to come by, with most spaces above 10,000 square feet, said Rita Mascari, vice president of marketing and sales for ImPress Systems.
The news of the lease comes as a major Boston tracking firm released its latest data showing the MetroWest lease market closing out 2011 fairly strong in terms of vacancy rates and asking rents.
Market Snapshot
Tracking firm Jones Lang LaSalle recently released its data for the 495 region in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Much of the region's vacancy and asking rents stayed stable compared to previous quarters, with the Massachusetts Turnpike region of MetroWest rising from 26.3 percent vacancy in the third quarter to a 28.7 percent vacancy in the fourth. Asking rents in that area rose about $0.50 to $18.89 per square-foot.
Vacancy rates in the 495-North area, which includes Chelmsford, dropped from 28.3 percent in the third quarter to 27.9 percent in the fourth. Asking rents dropped about $0.30 to $15.60 per square foot. The 495-South region's vacancy rate stayed level at 28.3 percent, with asking rents rising $0.50 to $18.54 per square foot.
ImPress Systems officials say they moved for a simple reason.
"We're moving because we're growing, we need more space," Mascari said.
ImPress manufactures commercial and industrial foil printers used for printing on non-paper items, such as pens and pencils.
Mascari noted printing is not a recession-proof business, but she and the other ImPress workers provide a value-added product that customers have been flocking to in recent years.
"We're booming, despite this weak economy," Mascari said. "It's a nice product that we developed and brought to market. Our customers are finding that it not only saves them money, but it makes money for them, given new services they can offer."
Marlborough's O'Brien Commercial Properties represented the owner of the building, Schoeffel Realty Trust, in the lease transaction. The Stubblebine Co. of Lexington represented ImPress Systems.
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