April, 2021 Rob Nahigian, FRICS, CRE, SIOR, MCR of Auburndale Realty Co., Newton, Mass. is pleased to announce that he recently completed a corporate real estate transaction for Hoskin&Muir, d/b/a HMI-Cardinal of Louisville, KY and its subsidiary Woon-Tech of 369 Douglas Road, Whitinsville, MA. It has resulted in one of the most impactful manufacturing relocation and long-term leases in central Massachusetts and the Worcester market. Woon-Tech will be leasing 120,000 square feet in total and relocating over 125 new manufacturing and warehouse jobs to 7-9 Latti Farm Road, Millbury, MA. The lease control period is long-term. The facility is located in the Millbury Industrial Park comprised of a total of 160,000 square foot and was the former Boston Globe Press and Distribution operations. The vacant building was the former Worcester Telegram & Gazette facility that was sold to the Boston Globe. The location of Millbury Industrial Park is key for distribution as its 2 miles from Rt. 140 and the MA Pike. The Boston Globe closed this facility in 2016 and sold it three years later to Tonuse, Inc., the current landlord. The plant was constructed approximately 22 years ago when The Globe owned the Worcester Telegram & Gazette which it sold in 2014.Mr. Nahigian developed and implemented a strategic plan with Woon-Tech and HMI during the Summer of 2020 to relocate its workers and manufacturing for its global reach. WoonTech is a glass company that manufactures and customizes glass shower doors, glass table-tops, glass wall partitions, floorings, awnings, etc. The company takes large sheets of glass, then custom cuts the glass and polishes the glass for delivery. Its customer base is both residential and commercial. The company ships out over 1,000 pieces per day with over 750 customers. Woon-Tech’s partners are located on the east coast, Montreal and Europe. Its financial operations throughout the U.S. have exceled in the last five years and has outgrown its current location. The company is looking to add another 20 to 30 employees. It is currently located in Whitinsville, MA in a total of 40,000 square feet of space comprised of office/manufacturing/warehouse. Its main facility is 33,000 square feet. The President of Woon-Tech is Josh Foster who is now the National Vice-President of Operations for HMI-Cardinal. Josh spearheaded the site selection process working with Rob Nahigian since last July, 2020. HMI-Cardinal is a privately held company with locations throughout the U.S.The landlord is Tonuse, Inc. of Worcester, MA, an industrial investment company that owns properties throughout the Northeast. Its President Tony Russell was instrumental in the lease negotiations and to the details of HMI’s requirements to make this transaction a success since the initial contact last August, 2020. The property will undergo a multi-million-dollar renovation for Woon-Tech that will include an upgrade of the manufacturing facility, offices and warehouse area to a state-of-the-art condition.
Author: Robert
Robert J. Nahigian, FRICS, SIOR, CRE, MCR has fifty years of real estate experience with forty-one years exclusively in commercial and industrial real estate. He has served as a developer, broker, advisor, litigation support/expert witness of approximately $ 5.2 billion of real estate totaling 43 million square feet. He is recognized as a global speaker and author in his industry and has served in many national leadership roles.
Local and national real estate media and publications often called upon him for his expert opinion. He has received national and state real estate accomplishment awards for commercial real estate brokerage and real estate counseling and holds four of the most elite international commercial real estate accreditations in the industry (FRICS, SIOR, CRE, MCR). These designations are earned from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, The Counselors of Real Estate, and CoreNet Global. He was also elected to an honorary land economics society, Lambda Alpha International (LAI). He has contributed to the publication of four real estate books, has authored over 390 professional articles, and delivered a HUD report to President Carter and U.S. Congress on the most comprehensive study of public housing stock in U.S. history. Rob also drafted the first Economic Development Plan for the City of Bowie, MD.
REAL ESTATE LEADERSHIP ROLES
As an industry leader, he has served on many national, state, and local real estate committees (over 60 committees, subcommittees, task forces). He serves on the Counselors of Real Estate two task forces as a co-chair and member. He has served on the National Board of Directors; past National Vice-Chair Liaison; the National Executive Committee; National Budget & Finance; Presidential Task Forces; past National CRE Editor-in-Chief; past Chair of the James Felt Counseling Award; past New England Chapter President; past Chapter Board of Director and has served as a Chair and Vice-Chair of numerous CRE committees.
For the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, Rob is a Legacy Member and served on numerous committees and leadership roles including National Editorial Board, National Communications and Branding Committee; National Chair Education; National Chair, Faculty Committee; Education Executive Committee; New England Chapter President; National Nominating Committee; National Budget & Finance; National Board of Directors; National Executive Committee; National Northeast Regional Vice-President; National Vice-Chair of numerous committees; Co-Chair of the Boston Convention; Presidential Task Forces, National Instructor and served over 23 years on the New England Chapter Board of Directors.
He has served on the Boston Board of Directors of the Commercial Brokers Association (CBA) for over 13 years and LAI Board for 5 years. He has served on numerous committees for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and CBA including Government Affairs, Awards Recognition, Education Committee (in which he served as Co-Chair), Presidential Task Forces, etc.
ACADEMIA AND NATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
He also served on many academic faculties and/or has been an invited national speaker. He is an Adjunct Professor at Boston University, a Senior Instructor for SIOR, MA NAIOP, and a past instructor or invited speaker with MAR, Visiting Assistant Professor at RealtorU, CoreNet Global, NAR Commercial Signature Series, Harvard Graduate School of Design, MIT, BAC, Northeastern University, Suffolk University, Lehigh University, and DePaul University. He has spoken at many regional and national conventions for NAI, FIABCI, ONCOR, SIOR, CORFAC International, NAIOP, CCIM, CoStar, Coldwell Banker Commercial Global, AMPI, CRE, Latin American Real Estate Conference, CBRE, Colliers International, and many state Realtor Associations.
APPOINTED INDUSTRY ROLES
Mr. Nahigian was appointed by three Governors to the MADOT Real Estate Appraisal Review Board; was elected by the MA Real Estate Licensing Commission to its CE Education Subcommittee, and has been elected to the Advisory Committee of an NYSE listed real estate investment firm (NERA).
He is a graduate of Lehigh University (cum laude) where he played collegiate Division II baseball and earned his Masters of Science in Urban Planning at Columbia University.
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