2026 Mid-Year Review: Tirdad Shahbazi, KS Partners

What projects, initiatives, or types of work have been keeping your team busiest during the first half of 2026?
The first half of 2026 has been active across all of our business lines. On the leasing front, we brought our Forbes 220R Business Center in Braintree to full occupancy, appointed Hunneman as exclusive leasing agent for the 200,000 s/f Connector Park at the Lowell Business Hub, and continued to drive momentum across our office, flex, & lab portfolios throughout the Northeast. Our construction team has remained active as well, advancing significant tenant improvement projects for Boston Bone & Joint Institute in Dedham and HNTB in Rocky Hill, CT.

On the investment side, our acquisitions team closed on The Campus at Greenhill, a 288,795 s/f Class A office campus in Wallingford, CT. The transaction reflects our broader conviction in acquiring high-quality, strategically located office assets at material discounts to replacement cost and historic pricing levels.

What trends or shifts have stood out most to you so far this year within your industry?
The bifurcation of the office market has become more pronounced. Well-located, amenity-rich assets continue to attract tenants and achieve real leasing velocity, while functionally obsolete product struggles to compete. That flight-to-quality dynamic validates the capital we have invested in our assets over the years and reinforces our focus on maintaining institutional-quality environments across the portfolio.

What challenges or opportunities have had the biggest impact on your business during the first half of 2026?
The interest rate environment continues to shape deal economics across the industry, and we have navigated that by remaining disciplined. Our focus is on assets where our operational expertise and vertically integrated platform can drive value independent of favorable financing conditions.

Construction costs remain a real consideration as we balance meeting tenant demands for high-quality environments against inflationary cost pressures and basis discipline. Finding that balance, while continuing to invest meaningfully in our assets, is something we think about every day.

As we look ahead to the second half of the year, what are you watching most closely?
We are closely watching the continued reset in office valuations, which we believe will create selective acquisition opportunities for patient, well-capitalized owners able to take advantage of significant pricing dislocations. On the life science side, venture funding activity remains a key signal for where lab demand is headed – that market has obviously recalibrated, but the underlying demand drivers in Massachusetts remain intact.

Lastly, we are actively expanding our focus into the small/shallow bay flex sector, where we see favorable supply/demand dynamics underpinning a compelling long-term thesis. The operational intensity of the asset class (specifically relative to bigger box industrial) creates a meaningful barrier to entry that suits our in-house platform well. We look forward to pursuing acquisition opportunities in this space throughout the second half of the year.