Beacon Construction Company — The Beacon Companies (1946 to 1994)

Beacon Construction Company was founded by Norman and Robert Leventhal in 1946. Initially, the company developed and constructed various projects in over 20 states. In the early 1960s, Beacon Construction Company became The Beacon Companies and began developing properties for its own account, beginning with Wellesley Office Park in suburban Boston. The Beacon Companies also began to develop its property management business during this time, managing its own properties, as well as properties owned by third parties in other cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

Through the 1970s and the 1980s, The Beacon Companies established a reputation as a high-quality property owner, operator, and developer and became increasingly associated with complex, high-profile urban projects in markets such as Boston and Washington, D.C. The company’s successes were measured not only by the scale and significance of its properties but also by market leadership in terms of rents achieved at its properties. Such leadership is illustrated by One Post Office Square (Boston; 1981), which within a five-year period broke two market rent barriers, first at $20 per square foot and then at $40 per square foot; Rowes Wharf (Boston; 1987), which, at the time, achieved the highest rental rates for commercial space and highest sale price per square foot for residential condominiums ever in its market; and South Station (Boston; 1989), formerly an underutilized and neglected train station, which was transformed into a profitable and fully leased retail, office, and transportation complex.

Beacon Properties Corporation (1994 to 1997)

The Beacon Companies’ office portfolio became the basis for establishing Beacon Properties Corporation, a publicly-traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and led by Alan Leventhal. Beacon Properties launched its initial public offering in May 1994. At the time of the IPO, Beacon Properties owned real estate totaling approximately 4.4 million square feet, including many of the buildings that The Beacon Companies had previously developed.

In three-and-a-half years as a public company, Beacon Properties implemented a focused national strategy and expanded its portfolio to more than 23 million square feet, expanding beyond its Boston base to Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. By December 1997, Beacon Properties had emerged as one of the nation’s top-performing real estate investment trusts and ultimately merged with Equity Office Properties Trust in a transaction that valued Beacon Properties at approximately $4.0 billion.

Beacon Capital Partners (1998 to present)

In January 1998, Alan Leventhal and other members of the Beacon Properties senior management team formed Beacon Capital Partners to continue the team’s real estate investment activities, focused on the office market.

Beacon launched its first investment vehicle, Beacon Capital Partners, Inc., a 144A private placement, in 1998, followed in 1999 by Beacon Capital Strategic Partners (“BCSP”), its first closed-end commingled fund.

Since 1998, Beacon has been the sponsor of nine separate investment vehicles, totaling over $19 billion of equity commitments, and has managed additional investor capital in joint ventures. Beacon has acquired over 111 million square feet of office and life science space through a combination of portfolio and single-building acquisitions.