August 9, 2023
The Dutch Maid Bakery at the Alsen Mapes Industrial Park— tucked between the Fields Corner and Clam Point sections of Dorchester— changed hands for $26.78 million last month. A Chicago investment company sold it to a large industrial and commercial real estate investment trust (REIT) firm based in Dallas.
The sale went through in early July and included parcels at 40-42 Sturtevant St. and a smaller parcel on Mapes Street – which appears to be a parking lot. They are the addresses of the Dutch Maid Bakery – a commercial bakery that makes cakes and baked goods for supermarkets and stores across the region.
The sale came from a limited liability company named “Alsen Mapes LLC” that is controlled by members of Chicago’s Keystone Capital and its subsidiary Keystone Capital Bakery Holdings LLC. According to the city assessing records, Alsen Mapes LLC is the owner of record on the Dutch Maid property.
The purchaser, Spirit Realty Capital, is an REIT based out of Dallas, a company that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and paid nearly $27 million for the Fields Corner properties.
According to its website, Spirit is “a premier net lease REIT that primarily invests in high-quality, operationally essential retail real estate, subject to long-term, net leases. Over the past decade, Spirit has become an industry leader and owner of income-producing, strategically located retail, industrial and office properties providing superior risk adjusted returns and steady dividend growth for our shareholders.”
Repeated phone calls and emails to both Spirit and Keystone were not returned.
Phone calls to the original owners of Dutch Maid Bakery still working on site were also not immediately returned. According to a Reporter article from 2003, Dutch Maid is a commercial bakery specializing in cakes that has been operating in the Alsen Mapes Industrial Park in Fields Corner for 38 years. Founded in the 1950s by the Blanken family, who immigrated from Holland, the company moved its operations from the South End to Dorchester in 1985.
Some business media reports indicated the entire Alsen Mapes Industrial Park had been sold. A representative from Royal Label Co. in the park said that wasn’t the case, and they still own their large industrial building and have no plans to sell or leave. Other owners include a limited liability company controlled by the Feeney Brothers, an MWRA pumping station, an industrial property owned by the Price family real estate trust, and the Elevator Constructors Building Association.
The Industrial Park was originally put together by the Boston Redevelopment Authority in the 1980s and several city businesses were relocated there from other areas.