A nanotechnology materials company has more than doubled its footprint with a new lease at 79-85 Astor Ave. in Norwood, taking 37,262 square feet inside a manufacturing and flex building off Route 1. The tenant, Nano-C, develops and manufactures electronic materials and specialty chemicals used across the solar, semiconductor and energy-storage industries.
Colliers arranged the deal, according to Connect CRE, which reported that the newly leased space will support Nano-C's growth as it continues developing electronic materials and specialty chemicals. The firm represented both the tenant and the landlord in the transaction, a dual role that put the same brokerage on both sides of the table.
On the landlord side, EVP Ovar Osvold and VP Sean Hannigan represented ownership, while EVPs Kevin Brawley and Steve Woelfel and VP John Real represented Nano-C, per the same outlet's reporting. The 60,204-square-foot building had recently changed hands and undergone a round of upgrades, including a new roof, exterior paint and LED lighting, improvements Connect CRE attributes to the ownership group it identifies as Kadima Industrial Partners and DRA Advisors.
A Building With Two Different Paper Trails
Not every account of the property lines up. A separate acquisition report from Boston Real Estate Times names DH Property Holdings LLC and DRA Advisors, rather than Kadima Industrial Partners, as the buyers behind the Norwood property, describing it as part of a 133,000-square-foot industrial logistics push across Norwood and Ayer. That same coverage puts the Astor Avenue address at 67,000 square feet and a $10.3 million sale price, figures that don't match the 60,204-square-foot building Connect CRE describes. The dossier of available reporting does not resolve which ownership entity or square-footage figure applies, or exactly how the two property descriptions relate to one another.
What is consistent across sources is the building's pitch to tenants. A Colliers property listing describes the site as fully air-conditioned and located just off Route 1, having recently come under new ownership, a detail that lines up with the renovation work cited in Connect CRE's report.
What Nano-C Makes And Where It's Headquartered
Nano-C was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Westwood, Massachusetts, according to the company's own About Us page. The company's materials show up in next-generation perovskite-based solar cells, advanced semiconductor manufacturing and EV battery materials, per Nano-C's news page, which also notes the company received ISO 9001:2015 certification for its quality-management systems in May.
Industrial Vacancy Climbs As Flex Demand Shifts
The lease lands against a choppy backdrop for Greater Boston's industrial market. Colliers' own first-quarter 2026 research found the region's overall vacancy rate rose 30 basis points to 12.8%, near an 11-year high, marking a fourth consecutive quarter of negative absorption that included 432,000 square feet of space given back in the first quarter alone. Annual rent growth, which peaked at 33.5% in 2022, had fallen to a 1.5% decline by the same period.
Yet demand for a narrower slice of the market, specialized flex and advanced-manufacturing space, tells a different story. Banker & Tradesman has reported that Massachusetts climate-tech, energy-tech, advanced-manufacturing and robotics companies have become the predominant tenants chasing buildings of under 200,000 square feet with adaptable layouts and electrical capacity typically exceeding 6,000 amps. The outlet also noted the Department of Defense selected Massachusetts as one of eight existing U.S. microelectronics hubs, a designation feeding interest in exactly the kind of flex space Nano-C just leased.
Other deals point to similar momentum. Boston Semi Equipment, a provider of semiconductor test solutions, recently signed for 20,082 square feet of flex space at 9 Beaver Brook Road in Littleton, a transaction facilitated by R.W. Holmes with Jim Bartholomew representing the landlord and Colliers representing the tenant. In Bedford, a building at 44 Middlesex Turnpike delivered in late 2024 landed a lease commitment from thermal-energy-storage company Fourth Power, while in Devens, Pathway Devens has completed four campus buildings, including a 187,000-square-foot facility leased entirely to Electric Hydrogen, with Vulcan Forms occupying the entire building at 39 Jackson Road.
