State’s First Mass Timber Building Lands Tenant


Image courtesy of SGA Architects

Just a month after being completed, New England’s first mass timber office building is mostly leased.

Construction began on the 90 Arboretum Drive building on the Newington side of Pease International Tradeport in October 2019. The project, developed by Massachusetts-based Farley White interests, finished in September.

Cushman & Wakefield, which represented ownership in the transaction, announced an unnamed industrial firm had sprung for the entire second and third floors of the 3-story, class A building. Kent White of the Boulos Company represented the new tenant.

Unlike traditional steel or concrete class A buildings, 90 Arboretum Drive was framed with thick, manufactured timber columns and decks. The overall effect is similar to former mill buildings in Manchester and Nashua. An added bonus, say proponents of mass timber, is the speed of construction: The components bolt together under the supervision of a single trade and no time is needed for concrete to cure once the foundation is laid.

“90 Arboretum Dr. is truly one of a kind,” Denis Dancoes, senior director at Cushman & Wakefield, said in a statement. “It is the only significant speculative, non-life science office building built in the northeast during COVID-19 and, despite all odds, has had great success in capturing the market’s attention. We’re thrilled to see superior quality tenants taking an interest in more sustainable, healthy and eco-friendly office space.”

Developers looking for more sustainable construction materials are also turning to mass timber as the material uses far less carbon dioxide to produce and traps a large portion of the carbon dioxide sequestered in the trees it is made of. The 90 Arboretum Drive structure uses 1,800 cubic meters of timber, representing 1,586 tons of stored carbon dioxide – the equivalent, its builders say, of the emissions of 465 cars over the course of a year.

“We’re extremely grateful to the state of New Hampshire and Governor Chris Sununu for their help and support during the build out process of this building,” Farley White Interests’ John Power said in a statement. “Being the first timber office building in New Hampshire required support and adoption of the 2015 version of the International Building Code from the building officials in Newington, Portsmouth and the State Fire Marshal’s office. In order to achieve a mass timber structure, our architect, SGA Architects, applied provisions of the 2015 International Building Code to this innovative structure. We also benefitted from the straightforward way the Pease Development Authority handled the approval process. This level-headed approach to business is one of the reasons that Farley White was attracted to investing in New Hampshire.”