0 Perspective on the Boston Real Estate Tax Increase

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bostinno.Streetwise.co

What are your taxes going up to in Boston? 200 Clarendon Street, The John Hancock Tower, takes the prize with the largest bill at $20,204,640 or $11.51 per square foot. The building last traded 4 years ago for $930,000,000.

To provide some perspective (or piece of mind) on the impending tax hike, Bostinno.streetwise.co posted stats on six notable Boston buildings:

Highest Gross Tax 
• Address: John Hancock Tower, 200 Clarendon St.
• Gross tax: $20,204,640
• Land assessed value: $111,925,200
• Building assessed value: $536,074,800
• Total: $648,000,000
• Land sf.: 73,143
• Year built: 1976
• Year remodeled: 2012
• Gross area: 2,082,040
• Floors: 62
• Owner: BP Hancock LLC
• Zip code: 02116
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0 Alexandra Hotel in Boston’s South End Goes Up for Sale

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

The Church of Scientology of Boston has decided to sell — rather than renovate — the Alexander Hotel on the corner of Mass. Ave. and Washington Street in the South End. The asset was acquired in 2008 for $4.5 million and is no longer large enough to accommodate the church’s needs to in excess of 50K square feet.

A BBJ article notes “the property has not yet been listed for sale, but several developers have already been in touch with the church…A listing broker was not disclosed.”

You can read the Boston Business Journal article on its website.

0 Boston Real Estate Valued at More than $100B

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Boston is a $100 billion dollar city and the hub’s office tenants will be paying for it. Expect your office lease rates to rise with the new year’s tax bill.

Credit: The Boston Globe

From the Boston Globe:

“With the [Boston] real estate market surging, the total estimated value of its residential and commercial property jumped over that threshold for the first time and has climbed to a total of $110 billion, according to a new city assessment…The increase will mean significantly higher tax bills for many property owners next year, although the extent of those increases will not be known until tax rates are set in the coming days…To stave off sticker shock, the city’s assessing department has already begun reaching out to owners in some neighborhoods where values have increased the most.”

0 Co-Working Office Space Coalition Opens in Downtown Crossing

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Wil Catlin

co-working coalition in downtown crossing Boston

Credit: Bostinno.Streetwise.co

Coalition is the latest to enter the shared workspace environment, opening in Downtown Crossing at 101 Arch Street.

Coalition opened in Boston’s Downtown Crossing neighborhood in February. “The setting is no doubt part of Coalition’s charm. At 101 Arch St., the 7,060-square-foot office boasts a fantastic view over The Hub and no shortage of restaurants and bars nearby for post-work winding down. (The area has also attracted collaborative working spaces in the area including WeWork, Techstars and even CIC Boston/Space with a Soul.),” according to an article on Bostinno.Streetwise.co. “Coalition aims to differentiate by partnering with MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge and other similar organizations to give young entrepreneurs the chance to work with seasoned local professionals. It’s a pretty impressive community, too, with venture capital and private equity investors and veteran entrepreneurs (with two to four founded firms under their belts) alike.”

Follow the link to read the complete Bostinno.Streetwise.co article.

0 Co-working Office Space Remains an Active Market: WeWork Valued at $6B

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Wil Catlin

WeWork clearly has identified a market for growth within the co-working office environment. With locations from Israel to Seattle, WeWork is on the move with a mission “to create a world where people work to make a life, not just a living.”

co-working office space in Cambridge at WeWork

Credit: Bisnow

A BisNow article states WeWork is “on the verge of closing a $300M to $600M financing round that could value the shared workspace provider at a whopping $6B. The start-up hit 1.5B in market value last month after securing $150M and suggesting that the next round would kick off in 2015.”

Additional information is provided by Bisnow on it’s website, here.

0 Cambridge Street Tower Nets Close to $50m for the Commonwealth

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Wil Catlin

office space in boston at 100 Cambridge Street

Click on the image to view property details on 100 Cambridge Street in Boston

100 Cambridge Street is under agreement to be sold by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Boston Globe published details on the sale, noting “MassDevelopment has found a buyer for its ground lease at 100 Cambridge St…Mark Sternman, a spokesman for MassDevelopment, declined to disclose the total sale price or the buyer, citing the fact that the deal has not yet been completed. He said the fully occupied tower includes 565,000 square feet of office space and 35,000 square feet of retail space…MassDevelopment redeveloped the tower and reopened it in 2004. The agency regularly received more than $20 million a year in lease revenue from the tower, reporting nearly $23 million for 2013.”

100 Cambridge Street Building Specs
• RBA: 565,157 SF
• Office: 530,618
• Retail: 34,539
• Stories: 22
• Typical Floor: 25,255
• Year Built: 1965
• Year Renovated: 2004

Partial Tenant List
• Ac Ppa Holdings, Llc
• Advance Auto Detailing
• American Student Assistance-Financial
• Barron & Stadfeld, P.C.
• Bright Horizons Family Solutions
• Brooks Pharmacy
• Cannon Designmove
• Citibank Llc
• Department of Revenue
• Dewey Square Group
• Dunkin Donuts
• ECG Management Consultants, Inc
• Energy and Environmental Affairs
• Mass General Hospital Corp
• Life Solutions Group
• Masiphumelele Corporation
• Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
• Miller Wachman LLP
• Penn Mutual Life Insurance
• Prince Lobel Tye LLP
• Rite Aid

0 Cambridge Office Rents Continue to Climb

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Banker and Tradesman

The torch gets passed to Kendall Square with office rents in Cambridge skyrocketing, and one market expected to climb even higher. Kendall is the spot to be for blue chip tech companies, but why – is it the view of the Boston Skyline? No, simply put it’s Harvard and MIT that are the attraction. Companies want to attract top talent and want to associate with these prestigious institutions any way they can.

Banker and Tradesman is reporting “building owners in the lab- and office-packed Cambridge neighborhood [of Kendall Square] are quoting $80 a square foot for prime space…[while] the vacancy rate for office space in the Cambridge neighborhood is a practically air-tight 0.6 percent.”

More information on the demand trends of Kendall Square office space is available on B&T’s website.

0 45 Milk Street Office Building Leased in Full

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Wil Catlin

office space at 45 milk street in downtown boston

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Year Up is on the move to 45 Milk Street, leasing all 61,000 square feet of the downtown Boston office building.

Context on the area around Milk Street in Boston, from Wikipedia:

“Milk Street was one of Boston’s earliest highways. The name “Milk Street” was given to the street in 1708 due to the milk market at the location. One of the first post offices in Boston was located on the street in 1711, when the first regular postal routes to Maine, Plymouth and New York were established.”

Historical Context on the building, from BostonHistory.org:

“In 1906, noted architect William Gibbons Preston modified his own 1893 design for this building by extending the Milk St. facade to its present location. The allegorical figures of commerce, fidelity, industry and security are by New York artist Max Bachman. The building’s original owner, the International Trust Company, was founded in 1879 and grew to become one of the largest trust companies in New England in the early 20th century.”

Building Stats
• Type: 4 Star Office
• RBA: 68,927 SF
• Stories: 9
• Typical Floor: 7,659 SF
• Class: A
• Construction: Masonry
• Building Ht: 111′
• Year Built: 1893
• Year Renov: 1981
• Tenancy: Multi
• Owner Occup: No
• Elevators: 2
• Slab to Slab: 12′
• Sprinklers: Yes
• Property Mix: Office (61,778 SF, 89.6%), Retail (7,051 SF, 10.2%)

The Building last sold on 6/10/13 for $21,000,000.

0 Cambridge Innovation Center at 15 Years Old

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston.About.com

Creating a community for innovators to innovate might be one of the most valuable innovations in Boston. Yes, the deals that are brought to market through CIC are what the VC’s are looking for, but without Tom Rowe’s platform — the Cambridge Innovation Center — some of these ideas may have been kept on the shelf and not made it to market.

A Boston Globe article offers some insight on CIC’s direction for the future:

“In April, [founder, Tim Rowe] opened the CIC Boston, a 60,000-square-foot shared office space downtown, and it has been just a few weeks since he opened CIC St. Louis, his first out-of-state venture and the largest startup space that is not on the East or West coast. Rowe was keen to cozy up to the Midwestern city’s startup scene: He saw promise in Washington University’s health care colossus and was tickled when Boeing opened offices in the 120,000-square-foot space — one of its first occupants. Lately, he has been shuttling to and from the Netherlands as he looks to take CIC global.”

Additional details and photos from the CIC’s 15th anniversary, are available on the Globe’s website.

0 Fenway Center Attracts new Partner

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Wil Catlin

The construction of Fenway Center in Boston over the Pike could be getting closer. Developer John Rosenthal is looking to partner up with Gerding Edlen to get the project in the ground.

rendering of Fenway office development in Boston MA

Credit: The Boston Globe

The development of “Fenway Center calls for the construction of five buildings on 4.5 acres of land and air rights over the Turnpike. The 1.3 million-square-foot complex would contain about 550 homes, 80,000 square feet of stores and restaurants, and 167,000 square feet of office space. Multiple garages, including one straddling the Turnpike, will contain space for 1,290 cars. A revamped Yawkey commuter rail station has already opened at the edge of the property, according to the Boston Globe.

More information on the Fenway Center project is available on the Boston Globe website, here. You can also read more general information on office space in Fenway on our submarket page.