Monthly Archives: June 2013

0 Roche Bros. Negotiating Lease in Millennium Tower

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Supermarket in Downtown Crossing, Boston

Photo Credit: Boston Herald

The chatter around the grocer for downtown Boston Heats up; seems like Roche Brothers is pushing for Millennium Tower and Wegmans is passing. The current growth of the Mid Town market seems to play very well for Roche Brothers. The migration of office tenants priced out or East Cambridge and the Seaport along with new residential units will add to the demand of the live/work individual looking stock up on milk and bread during the next Nor’easter.

The Boston Herald reported that “Roche Bros. chain of suburban supermarkets is hammering out plans for its first urban market at Millennium Partners’ $630 million Millennium Tower project, which includes redevelopment of the adjacent Filene’s building.”

For more information on the planned supermarket location at Millennium towers, jump over to the full article on the Boston Herald’s website.

 

0 Fenway Center Development Gets Green Light

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Rendering of mixed-use development in Fenway Center Boston

Rendering of the mixed-use Fenway Center Project; image courtesy of The Boston Globe

The view from the Turnpike heading into Boston has cleared its final hurdle. Fenway Center, the vision of Jon Rosenthal will become a reality with construction expected to commence in 2014.

The Boston Globe reports, “State Department of Transportation directors approved a lease covering 4.5 acres of land and air rights over the Massachusetts Turnpike, a key agreement for the development.”

The full article is available on The Boston Globe website

 

0 Seaport Hotel Rising Across from Boston Convention Center

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Hotel site in Boston's Seaport district, across from Boston Convention Center

Photo Credit: Jim Mahoney, Boston Herald

The Seaport continues see plans for growth; the latest up to bat is a 1,500-room hotel across the street from the Convention Center. This project isn’t expected to deliver to the market until 2017.

“The project would create a ‘headquarters hotel’ for the convention center and is crucial to plans to expand the center by 60 percent, which the state Legislature could consider later this year, said James Rooney of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority,” a Boston Herald reports.

You can read more on the the HQ at the Seaport’s BCEC on the Boston Herald’s website

0 Boston Workforce Expected to Grow

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Office building at 111 Huntington Ave in BostonThe Boston workforce is expected to continue to grow according to a survey of local CFO’s. 12 percent expect to be adding personnel in the 3rd quarter while the overall majority expressed confidence is their company’s growth.

An article on the Sacramento Bee, referencing a Boston Professional Employment Forecast from Robert Half, notes that “twelve percent of chief financial officers (CFOs) in the Boston area expect to add new professional-level positions in the third quarter..Fifteen percent of respondents will not be hiring, even to fill an open position, and 1 percent plan to reduce staff levels. Another 72 percent said they will hire for roles that open during the next three months.”

The full article is available here: Boston CFOs Reveal 3rd-Quarter Hiring Plans

 

0 Back Bay Towers Proposed at Christian Science Plaza

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Christian Science Church in Boston's Back Bay

Photo Credit: Boston Business Journal

The Back Bay skyline is poised to change yet again with the plans filed for a 1 million square foot development at the Christian Science Church.

Details of the plans filed were posted on the BBJ:

“the church has proposed a pair of towers at Belvidere and Dalton streets that will include a 712,500-square-foot hotel and condominium skyscraper at 691 feet. At 14 feet per floor, that would be about 49 stories, slightly shorter than the Prudential tower’s 52 floors. A second mid-rise would be a 237,500-square-foot apartment building at 285 feet. At 12 feet per floor, it would be about 24 stories. The project will also include a 4,300-square-foot park and an unspecified amount of ground floor retail.”

The complete article is available on the BBJ’s website, here.

Related Office Space
Commercial Real Estate in Back Bay

 

0 Back Bay Parking Spaces Sell for Record Price

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Parking spaces in back bay Boston

Credit: The Boston Globe

How much is too much to pay for parking?  Moreover, what would you pay to own a parking spot in Back Bay? The answer, it seems, is a lot. And for the right buyer with an eye on convenience, perhaps it’s the right fit.

An article on the BBJ noted that a pair of tandem parking spots at 298 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston’s Back Bay recently “set a record for the highest price ever paid for a strip of asphalt…[when] bidding at the IRS auction began at $42,000 and soared to $560,000 within 15 minutes.”

The post on the Boston Business Journal also included a list of the most expensive parking spaces in Boston.

0 Office Space Interiors Adopting Hybrid Atmosphere

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Interior design for modern office space

Photo Credit: The Washington Post

Given the influx of new companies into Boston office space, architects and contractors have been busy.  What we see today for newly fit spaces differs greatly from what we saw 10 years ago; companies want to create collaborative work environments with maximum efficiency.

Some do it more creatively than others. For instance, an article on The Washington Post references the Fuse Project’s ‘Public Office Landscape’ aesthetic by Yves Béhar:

“the design looks more like a modern coffee house in some ways than an office layout, combining bench seating and cafe tables with traditional office chairs and desks. Given the growing number of coffee-house denizens armed with laptops, they appear to be on to something. The design also does away with the traditional, closed-off meeting room, opting for more collaborative environments.”

You can check out a full image gallery on the Fuse Project blog

0 Legal Sea Foods Opening in Millennium Place

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Rendering of Legal Sea Foods restaurant in downtown crossing

Photo Credit: Legal Sea Foods (via Boston Business Journal)

If they build it, we will come. Well, yes, with the influx of new office tenants and residential buildings some of those naysayers of the past have changed their tune. Legal Sea Foods being one of them. Another recent edition to Downtown Crossing is Michael Inwald’s Cheeseboy at 280 Washington Street.

According to the BBJ, “Legal Sea Foods has signed a deal with Millennium Partners for Legal Crossing, a 5,600-square-foot restaurant at the $220 million Millennium Place condominium tower nearing completion at the edge of Chinatown. The 150-seat eatery is expected to open this fall.”

The full Boston Business Journal article is available on the BBJ’s website.

0 Boston Office Vacancies Decreasing in Majority of Markets

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Office building in Government Center in BostonTenants that are in the market flock to value; over the last four quarters that value play has been the Financial District.  As those vacancies have been eroded, rents have pushed upward.  What will this mean tomorrow and beyond?  Those tenants that signed leases three plus years ago in the now tight and expensive Seaport Market will seek value options elsewhere if they feel that low $40’s rents for Class B is too much to burden in the Seaport.  

Markets that have benefited and that will continue to do so are Mid Town and North Station.

A post on the Boston Business Journal notes that Back Bay is lagging behind its neighboring submarkets:

“‘the only market where there has been an increase in vacancies is in the Back Bay…there continues to be uncertainly in the city’s most expensive office market with State Street Corp. downsizing considerably, [Debra Gould, a broker at Cushman & Wakefield] said. “They also have 400,000 square feet in Copley and it’s still not clear what will happen to that space … and obviously they are vacating the low-rise portion of the John Hancock Tower and there are price concerns … activity in the Back Bay will be slow.'”

You can read the full BBJ article, here.

Related Listings
Available Office Space in Boston Submarkets

0 Boston Startups Filling Downtown Crossing Office Space

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Office building at 99 Summer St. in BostonWhat does the Red, Green and Orange Line have in common?  The benefit of transporting the influx of employees to the newly leased up space in Downtown crossing to all the startups priced out of the Seaport and Cambridge.

W. Marc Bernsau of the Boston Business Journal reports, “the available office space in Downtown Crossing plunged by nearly 40 percent in two years as a wave of startups priced out of Kendall Square and the Seaport arrived in search of real estate bargains.”

Additional details on the startups moving into downtown crossing and its associated office space are available on the Boston Business Journal’s website.

Related Listings
Available Office Space in Downtown Crossing