O’Brien Commercial Properties closed the sale of 36 Nason St. in Maynard, MA for $1.4 million. The building was the original home of the Paper Store, which now runs to more than 100 stores and over 3,000 employees nationwide.

The building was purchased by Fly By Night Furniture, which operates a large store in Northampton, MA and plans to expand its footprint to include Maynard. Keith Gurtler of O’Brien Commercial represented the Paper Store.

The 11,604-square-foot jewel box of a building was constructed in 1920. It consists of two floors with direct retail frontage along Nason Street.

Following the highs seen during the COIV-19 era, domestic migration levels have begun to taper off, Placer.ai reports. The analytics firm notes that some sources put the number of Americans moving within the U.S. hitting an all-time low in 2023. 

“To be sure, some popular COVID-era destinations – including Idaho, the Carolinas, and Utah – saw their net domestic migration continue to rise, albeit at a slower pace,” according to a new Placer.ai white paper. “But other states which had been relocation hotspots between February 2020 and February 2023, such as Wyoming and Texas, experienced negative net migration between February 2023 and February 2024.” 

Titled Migration Hotspots in a Cool 2024 Market, the white paper leverages location intelligence to explore emerging domestic migration trends in early 2024. It delves into which metro areas are still attracting new residents and what’s drawing them to emerging hotspots. At the same time, it also examines which metros are seeing population outflows.

Pictured: Boulder, CO, currently the top location for inbound migration.

Westbridge and FCP partnered to redevelop a 70-year-old one-time paper plant into 226,000 square feet of offices. Commercial Edge reports the developers of Westside Paper have signed a lease with Construction Resources, which will open a design center there in early 2025. The company, which caters to residential builders and contractors, has agreed to occupy 45,000 square feet.

The partners have also recently announced a long-term lease by Proof of the Pudding, Atlanta’s largest caterer, for an event venue at Westside Paper.

In addition to the adaptive reuse, the 15-acre site includes 65,000 square feet of new construction.

Completed in late 2022, Westside Paper is along the Atlanta BeltLine Northwest Spur, under construction as part of the multi-use trail and light rail transit system built largely on former railroad rights-of-way around central Atlanta. Westbridge says it brings relevance to functionally obsolete properties with vast potential.