September 27, 2023
Brothers Billy (left) and Danny Lambert (right) are the co-owners of Lambert’s Rainbow Fruit, which is located in a Morrissey Boulevard shopping plaza that just sold for $10 million. The plaza was owned by a trust tied to the Lambert family, which opened their store decades ago. The store is expected to stay in business for at least another decade, if not more. Seth Daniel photo
The plaza that is home to Lambert’s Rainbow Market last week sold for $10 million in a transaction guaranteeing that the family-owned business, known for its to-go meals and deli meats, among other items, will remain in operation there for at least a decade.
The family behind the market sold the property, with the address of 731-777 Morrissey Boulevard, to Dorchester Realty Ventures LLC. The Boston Business Journal first reported the sale.
The Lamberts put up the property, as well as a Westwood property that is also home to a family store, earlier this year. The Westwood location on Route 1 was bought by Westwood Realty Ventures LLC for $12.8 million. The sale of both properties was listed in publicly available deeds and confirmed by a Lambert’s family member.
Both Dorchester Realty Ventures and Westwood Realty Ventures feature the same Norwood address, which is the location of a Cadillac dealership.
Lambert’s has been at the Morrissey Boulevard location for 65 years. Other retail tenants include a pizzeria, ice cream shop, a fitness center, a clothing store, a Citizens Bank branch, and a gas station. With the plaza fully leased, the property is expected to remain retail-heavy for the foreseeable future.
Danny Lambert, a co-owner, said the family expects to extend the store’s lease beyond the ten years currently in place. He called the sale and its outcome the “best case scenario” for the family, which started the business with his father Wilfred and his uncle George. His father is 86, and George passed away in 1999, according to Danny Lambert, who grew up in Dorchester before his side of the family moved to Braintree in elementary school.
Before the sale, the land was owned by a Lambert family trust.
The property sits across from apartment complexes going up by Boston Bowl, and around the corner from 900 Morrissey, a Comfort Inn that is on track to be converted into permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals.
Up the road, biotech companies are moving into the former Boston Globe headquarters, and developers are set to remake Columbia Point over the next 10 years with a $5 billion project known as “Dorchester Bay City.”
The development pipeline, which has kept flowing in the face of economic uncertainty and higher interest rates, comes as city and state officials are eyeing ways to strengthen the Morrissey corridor’s ability to handle traffic and rising sea levels brought about by climate change.
