Cross Point (Lowell, Massachusetts)

Cross Point is an office complex in Lowell, Massachusetts. Formerly named Wang Towers, it is a local landmark, dominating the busy intersection[2][3] of Interstate 495 (the Boston outer ring road) and U.S. Route 3. It is the third-tallest building in Lowell, after Three River Place and the Kenneth R. Fox Student Union at UMass Lowell.

This article is about the Lowell office towers. For other uses, see Cross Point.
Cross Point
General information
StatusComplete
TypeClass A office building
LocationLowell, Massachusetts, USA
Address900 Chelmsford Street Lowell, MA 01851
Coordinates42°36′53″N 71°19′29″W
OwnerYale Properties USA
Divco West
Public Sector Pension Investment Board (Canada)
Height168.93 feet (51.49 m)[1]

The complex, consisting of three interconnected cement-clad 12-storey[4][Note 1] towers and other buildings totaling over 1,200,000 square feet (110,000 m2) situated on 15 acres (6.1 ha), was built by original sole tenant Wang Laboratories as its new world headquarters.[3]

Construction began in 1980, and it was completed in stages at a cost of US$60,000,000 (about $159 million[5] in current dollars).[6][Note 2] The buildings served as a demonstration of the rise of Wang Labs and the Boston-area computer technology industry generally, and later as a sign of the rapid fall of the company and industry: Wang Labs entered bankruptcy in 1992, and the property was sold at bankruptcy auction in 1994 for a tiny fraction of its construction cost – $525,000 (about $906 thousand[5] in current dollars) – in 1994, to Louis Pellegrine,[6] fronting for Atlantic Retail Partners.[7]

Atlantic renovated the towers (with the help of tax breaks and a $4 million letter of credit from the City of Lowell)[8][9] and sold them in 1998 to San-Francisco-based Yale Properties USA and Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, reportedly for over $100 million.[7] The towers acquired new tenants, but business was hurt by the 2000-2001 bursting of the "dot-com bubble", and it was described as being, by 2005, a "ghost town"[10] with an occupancy rate of about 50%.[10]

Yale Properties bought out Blackstone's share in 2005; in the same year San-Diego-based Divco West Properties bought an interest in the property.[11] By 2007 the occupancy rate was back up to about 90%, with major tenants such as Motorola moving in.[10] Yale actively shopped the property, but a 2007 deal to sell it for about $180 million to a consortium led by Davis Marcus Partners[12] fell through. The real estate crash beginning in 2007 put severe strain on the property's finances,[13] but Yale and Divco West (along with Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board) retained ownership. In 2012 the towers were about 70% filled[14] and Colliers International was hired to boost occupancy.[14]

The towers were sold to CP Associates LLC for $100 Million in 2014.[15][3]

One of the largest office lease relocation transactions in Greater Boston happened when Kronos Incorporated signed a 500,000 square-foot global headquarters office lease at Cross Point in 2016.[16][17] This move makes the workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions provider one of the largest employers in Lowell and the largest tenant at Cross Point with 1,500 employees on a total of 16 floors.[18][19] CrossPoint’s ownership team and Kronos plan to invest more than $40 million toward the design and build-out of a completely modernized facility.[20]

Notes
  1. ^
    Some sources give 12 or 13 as the number of storeys. Yale Properties gives 14.
    2. Cross Point has a lobby that goes through all three towers. There are twelve floors, in all three towers, above the lobby. Tower 2, the middle one has an additional floor at the top. Was once where Dr Wang's office and other executive offices were located.
  2. ^
    Many sources give "$50 to $60 million" as the construction cost. The New York Times gives $60 million.

References
  1. "Cross Point Towers". Emporis. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  2. "Cross Point" (PDF). (Cross Point Lowell web site). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2013. Daily on average, 40,000 vehicles pass Cross Point.
  3. "Developer spends $100 million on former Wang towers in Lowell - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  4. "Cross Point". Properties. Yale Properties. Archived from the original on April 12, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  5. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  6. "COMPANY NEWS; Wang Headquarters Auctioned for $525,000". New York Times. February 17, 1994. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  7. "Wang Towers team shifts focus onto development". Boston Business Journal. August 14, 2000. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  8. Stanton, Cathy (2006). The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-1558495470. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  9. "Successful Strategy: Cross Point". Lowell Development & Financial Corporation. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  10. "Lowell's Cross Point revived, back on block". Boston Business Journal. June 25, 2007. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  11. "Cross Point leases 285,000 square feet" (PDF). (press release). Gallen Neilly and Associates. October 24, 2006. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  12. "Agreement close for sale of former Wang Towers". Boston Business Journal. September 3, 2007. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  13. "Cross Point faces $86M debt reckoning". Boston Business Journal. August 16, 2010. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  14. Joe Clements. "Colliers Gets the Call at Cross Point" (PDF). The Real Reporter. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
  15. "Cross Point sells for $100 million". Lowell Sun. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  16. "Why Kronos' new Lowell headquarters is now more than half a million square feet". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  17. "Kronos to consolidate in Lowell office tower". Boston Globe. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  18. "Kronos moving to Cross Point in Lowell". Lowell Sun. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  19. "A major tech employer's lease in Lowell is bigger than expected". Boston.com. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  20. "A major tech employer's lease in Lowell is bigger than expected". Boston.com. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
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