Worcester Firm Heads For Westborough
Stowe & Degon buys Route 9 building for $2M
Ending months of speculation, a principal with Stowe & Degon CPAs and Consultants, the fourth largest accounting firm in Central Massachu-setts, has confirmed that his firm is moving from downtown Worcester to Westborough.
Michael Stowe and David Degon, principals of the firm, which is currently headquartered at a 120 Front St. in Worcester, purchased 95A Turnpike Rd. in Westborough on Feb. 26 for $2 million through Stow & Degon Investments LLC, according to land records. The three-story building sits on a 1.7-acre parcel along the busy Route 9.
Good-Bye Rent, Hello Mortgage
The seller was E. Thomas McCabe Jr., a trustee of Ninewest Realty Trust. Carl and David Burwick of the Katz Cos. in Worcester brokered the deal for Stowe & Degon, while Robert Yale of Sperry Van Ness of Northborough represented the seller.
The impetus for the move was a desire at the firm to own, rather than rent, Stowe said.
Stowe stressed that the move out of Worcester was a difficult choice.
“My partner Dave (Degon) and I are both from Worcester, and we have a good network of professionals here,” he said. “It’s not a negative reflection on Worcester. We just didn’t want to be renters for the next 20 years.”
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Will Kelleher, a broker at Kelleher & Sadowsky in Worcester responsible for leasing Front Street, conceded that the type of investment property Stowe & Degon was looking for is hard to find in the city.
Broker David Burwick agreed, describing Worcester as “a mature market” with few “buildings for sale with office space and with parking at the front door” like the 95A Turnpike property.
Kelleher said Stowe & Degon occupies about 4,400 square feet of space subleased from Flagship Bank at Front Street. He called the firm’s pending move east disappointing, but added that it won’t have an impact on the CitySquare development, a $560 million mixed-use project that will include the Front Street property. The Front Street building is 82 to 85 percent leased.
Stowe also admitted that moving his 24-person staff to Westborough will have some additional perks. Specifically, he said the Westborough headquarters will aid the firm in attracting personnel.
Over The Edge
Stowe & Degon is not the first accounting firm to head to Westborough. The most notable move east was that of Carlin, Charron & Rosen, which vacated about 30,000 square feet at Sovereign Tower in 2004.
Stowe said another factor that made buying in Westborough more economical than buying in Worcester is taxes. For fiscal year 2007, the commercial tax rate in Worcester was 25.32, while the residential rate was 12.10. In Westborough, the rate is a flat 13.66 for commercial and residential.
One Worcester firm that has no intentions of pulling up its city roots is Graham, Huckins & Shepherd, according to principal John Graham.
However, Graham acknowledged that Westborough is gaining some traction as an edge city — or a concentration of businesses outside the more traditional urban centers, like Worcester.
While he acknowledged the high tax rate in the city, he said it’s the price of doing business.
“You ask me if Worcester’s perfect, but where is Utopia? It doesn’t exist,” Graham said.
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