The Cushing Village Effect: Watertown Apartment Building Sold for Top Dollar

Call it the Cushing Village effect. An iconic brick apartment building overlooking Belmont's Cushing Square in Watertown was sold by the family which owned it since it was built in 1942 to a well-known name in Boston rental circles. 

Oakley Court, a 29-unit building at the corner of Common and Belmont streets (named after a stately Victorian Gothic country house - now a hotel - overlooking the Thames in Berkshire, England that is best known as the exterior of Dr. Frank N Furter's castle in the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show) has been purchased for $3.2 million by Allston-based Hamilton Company, which is owned by long-time property owner and landlord 88-year-old Harold Brown.

Not only is the Hamilton Company – which controls 5,500 residential units and 2.5 million square feet of commercial space – purchasing the building, they will be changing its name to Hamilton Court. 

“This property is uniquely located and boasts generous living space, a parking garage and  immediate MBTA access,” said Carl Valeri, president and chief operating officer of the Hamilton Company. “The property’s condition will fit well with our other 180 units we own and manage in Watertown."

The purchase comes after Belmont's Planning Board approved a special permit with provisions for the construction of the 186,000 sq.-ft. Cushing Village retail, residential and parking complex, which will be diagonal from Hamilton Court along Belmont and Common streets. The three-building complex will bring 112 units of new high-end residential housing to the neighborhood.

It is suspected that rents in the surrounding area - including at Hamilton Court - will jump to reflect the new construction on the market and the creation of new retail stores and amenities to the square.