Wayland Town Center sold to Chicago firm for $36M, nearly 50% lower than previous sale

Northpond Partners, a Chicago-based investment firm, has purchased a 25-acre commercial development in Wayland for $35.75 million, a significant decrease from its last sale in 2015. An affiliate of Northpond Partners purchased the parcels making up Wayland Town Center in transactions finalized on Nov. 21, according to Middlesex South Registry of Deeds records. The purchase included about 144,661 square feet of retail and office space, according to real estate data firm CoStar, including space occupied by tenants like Stop & Shop, X-Golf, Ace Hardware, and Sperry’s Liquors. The sale included 12 affordable rental apartments located on the upper floor of one of the retail sites.  Wayland Town Center is the lone Massachusetts asset in Northpond’s 100-property portfolio, according to CoStar. Northpond purchased the center from New York-based Zurich Alternative Asset Management, which had purchased the site from its original developer Twenty Wayland LLC for $68 million in 2015.  Twenty Wayland pitched the redevelopment of the former Raytheon site on Route 20 in 2005, but its full 55-acre masterplan for the site never came to fruition, after years of litigation between the Town, local residents, and the developer, according to the Wayland Post. The project’s grand opening was held in late 2013. The Wayland Post first broke the news of the impending sale in October, citing Wayland Select Board documents.  Robert Griffin, Jonathan Martin, Paul Penman, Casey O'Brien, and Geoffrey Millerd of Newmark in Boston served as the listing brokers for this transaction, according to CoStar.  The four parcels included in the sale received a 2025 tax assessment value of $44.75 million, according to Town of Wayland property records.   Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.