Commercial real estate firm Cummings Properties recently rolled out a marketing campaign promoting its long-standing philanthropic mission. Using the phrase "Cummings Buildings Power Charities," new signage, advertisements, and Web pages explain that the large majority of buildings in the Cummings portfolio are owned by Cummings Foundation, with all rental profits from these properties benefiting charitable causes.
"The Cummings organization is very much based on the idea of giving back," said Dennis Clarke, Cummings Properties' president and CEO. "Some have likened us to Newman's Own, which is well known for donating its profits to charity. The profits generated by the Foundation's many buildings help support hundreds of nonprofits, mostly in Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties, where our employees and clients live and work."
Founded by the late actor Paul Newman, Connecticut-based Newman's Own donates 100% of its after-tax profits to charity. According to its website, the worldwide seller of food products distributes between $25 and $30 million in grants annually.
This year, Cummings Foundation expects to award more than $35 million in grants. The first $10 million in funding was announced in June, with 100 greater Boston charities receiving grants of $100,000 each. An additional $10 million will be awarded through larger grants, including $1 million to support Salem Sate University's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and approximately $2 million to renovate the lobby of Boston's Museum of Science.
The foundation, one of the largest in New England, also recently pledged $15 million to Boston-based Partners In Health to create a new university of health sciences in Rwanda. This major project is in the active planning phase.
"The feedback from the new campaign has been extremely positive," said Clarke. "Although both our real estate and our charitable work are well known locally, we hope to create more awareness about how, in most cases, when people lease commercial space from Cummings Properties, they are actually leasing from Cummings Foundation and supporting its charitable efforts."
In Woburn alone, Cummings Foundation owns more than 3 million s/f of commercial space, including the Cummings Park and West Cummings Park business campuses on Washington St.
Clarke added that Cummings Properties' leadership team does not expect businesses to lease space because of the building owner's philanthropic mission.
"First and foremost, Cummings Properties differentiates itself in the marketplace with products and services that are exceptional values for its leasing clients," said Clarke. "The firm's commitment to charitable causes is an extra consideration that many client firms say they feel very good about."
Cummings Properties' 10 million s/f of prime space accommodates executive offices, healthcare facilities, laboratories, retail storefronts, warehouses, and more. With a portfolio of this size and variety, the firm can meet almost any commercial real estate need, from 150 s/f to 300,000 s/f. Its in-house experts in design, construction, and property management offer "one-stop shopping" for leasing clients.