0 Boston Office Towers: Occupancy Drop; Rents still Climbing

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Wil Catlin

28 State Street – Office Building

Where is the value in office space within Boston? Low and mid-rise Class A.

Tenants in recent years have worked on space efficiency like State Street with their new facility in the Seaport, which will have less than 100 square feet per employee. Additionally, tenants have sought out a flight to quality by moving up in floors during the recent economic downturn and locking in rates for a longer term.

The Boston Business Journal cites a survey by Jones Lang LaSalle, “which examined 46 towers in the Back Bay, Financial District and the Seaport, found 22 buildings where occupancies dropped, while 21 saw increases and three were flat, year-over-year. Within the 31.8 million-square-foot office market, 5.7 million is available to lease – the equivalent of three John towers.”

More information from the survey is available on the BBJ’s website.

0 Tech Sector Hoping Walsh can Keep Downtown Office Space Affordable

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Office space at 200 High Street in the Financial District

Mayor Menino departs in January for Mayor Elect Walsh. Will our economy grow and prosper with the next administration? Well, it is a delicate balance that will spur development while maintaining affordability.

Boston.com posted a dense, thought-proviking piece examining the impact of the mayorial change on small business locations and city-based office space. Here are a few notable quotes from the article:

I spoke with a half dozen tech entrepreneurs about their hopes for and expectations of the incoming Walsh administration, and picked up on two major themes…They want the new mayor to help keep office space affordable and to improve public transit in the Innovation District.”

IdeaPaint president John Stephans told me his business, which is moving from Ashland to Boston in January, would have liked to relocate sooner but found the cost prohibitive until it enjoyed several successful years.

“We always wanted to be in the city, as do a lot of companies,” he said. “But I think companies feel priced out, especially young, venture-backed start-ups.”

The full article is available on Boston.com, here.

0 Boston Tech Companies Throw Dance Party at Lunch

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Dance party at lunch in Boston seaport district

Credit: The Boston Globe

It seems that ice cream Friday for the office doesn’t stand a chance, when pitted against a lunchtime dance party. Will this be a new mainstay within the Innovation district or a passing fad?

The Boston Globe reports, “Lunch Beat Boston style is an amped-up dance hour, where the Seaport’s District Hall is turned into a darkened disco, and techies groove to thumping electronica so loud that networking becomes, by necessity, a wordless bounce to the beat with your neighbor…Lunch Beat — a global franchise that started three years ago in the electronic dance music hub of Stockholm — is a noontime rave intended to break up the work routine with a midday jolt of techno tunes. Organizers in Greater Boston held their fourth such rave Wednesday at District Hall, the newly erected center of the city’s budding Innovation District.”

The full Globe editorial is available to Boston Globe subscribers on its website.

0 Boston Ranked 3rd Most ‘Walkable’ City

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Boston is a very walkable city except when you want to cross the street. Doesn’t matter if you on Beacon Hill or Dot Ave – look left, right, left – then run.

The Boston Business Journal interviewed Walk Score — the company the produced the survey — CEO, Joshua Herst, who stated “Boston is a very walkable place and came out with a score of 79.5, making it a very walkable location.” Herst went on to say “Boston may be our most consistent performer, coming in at number three in our 2008, 2011 and 2014 rankings.”

Additional insights from the interview are available on the BBJ.

0 Boston Ranks 9 for Worst Traffic in US

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Has Boston really climbed to the top 10, for worst traffic? Well, I would say we are doing something right by creating more jobs for those drivers to go to. By no sense am I a fan of traffic, but I am a fan of our collective workforce growing our local economy.

A BBJ report notes that Boston has climbed from 21 up to number 9, on a list of the worst traffic cities in the U.S.

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

0 MIT-designed Solar Benches in Boston

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Credit: The Boston Globe

What’s in store for the Greenway or a park bench near you? Solar with the Net, that’s right. MIT designed benches allow occupant to rest, recharge and Uber without increasing the carbon footprint.

According to The Boston Globe, “installed recently at the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, each of these two sleek, backless benches has a solar panel on one side to provide power to recharge cellphones, a connection to the Internet, and for night lighting. Soon they also will have sensors to detect for air pollution — even telling whether someone nearby is smoking.”

The full article is available to Globe subscribers: Seat-e can recharge phones as users take a rest

0 MassDOT Approves Back Bay Hotel, Retail, and Condo Project

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Banker & Tradesman

At Boylston Street and Mass Ave a new project has just gotten approvals from MDOT.

Details on the new project are available in Banker & Trademan, and included the following overview:

“A project at the corner of Boylston Street and Mass. Ave. in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood involving the construction of a hotel and residential development over the MassPike received approval from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation today…The 99-year lease agreement between MassDOT and ADG Scotia covering two plots of land, known as Parcels 12 and 15, will provide the Commonwealth project value of $18.5 million for the two parcels in the form of fixed payments early in the lease period combined with annual rent payments.”

The full article can be found here on B&T.

0 How Expensive is Kendall Square?

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Wil Catlin

The short answer is mid $50’s PSF which equates to a 10 percent increase over last year. That being said, the real cost is even greater, due to fewer concessions from landlord’s. The East Cambridge office market is at a 6.4 percent vacancy rate, which contributes to the elevated rental numbers. The other side of this is there are fewer options for mid-sized tenants. Landlords would prefer larger full floor users as opposed to multi tenanted floors.

A Banker & Tradesman article from last week reported on one company migrating to Kendall Square, in East Cambridge:

“Biomeasure Inc. will abandon its Milford location for the proximity to hospitals and research institutions offered by Cambridge’s Kendall Square. The firm, a subsidiary of French pharmaceutical company Ipsen, has leased 63,000 square feet of space at 650 East Kendall St. in Cambridge. The company is moving its U.S. research and development operations from 27 Maple St. in Milford.”

You can jump over to the full article on Banker and Tradesman.

Related Listings
Office Space in Kendall Square

0 Real Estate Developers Voice Case for Tax Breaks

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Credit: The Boston Globe

Are you in favor or opposed of tax relief for construction projects? A Boston Globe editorial addressed the issue of added tax relief for construction projects, noting “the developer of Boston’s ambitious Fenway Center development is seeking $7.8 million in city tax breaks to proceed with construction, saying the $500 million mega-project could fall apart without urgent public assistance.”

The full Globe article, available here, further explores the issue.