0 Boston Greenway will Influence Nearby Office Design

Boston’s Greenway transcends the city’s current incarnation, and will continue to benefit from times gone by. Surrounding buildings will need to create access points to invite visitors to directly access the park and highlight the lush Greenway landscape.

North End Park Boston

Credit: Bostinno.Streetwise

Bostinno.Streetwise articulates how the city’s architecture can grow to accentuate the Greenway in the coming years:

This beautiful Greenway carved through the heart of downtown Boston, building owners, architects and developers should really be thinking about repositioning the front of their buildings toward the “center.” If you walk down the 1.5-acre strip, you will notice that many of the buildings’ entrances are facing opposite the park toward the dark “maze of streets,” limiting options for retail, hospitality and ultimately commerce along this central corridor.

If we turned these buildings around, similar to what happened in P.O. Square and the projects we completed there, the 1 P.O. Square and 225 Franklin Street lobbies, the Greenway could serve as a grassy green extension of our workplace’s front porch.

You can read the full editorial on Bostinno.Streetwise.co.

0 Congress Square Project Grows Retail in Boston Financial District

Congress Sq. retail space in Boston financial district

Credit: BBJ

Related Beal’s Congress Square project will bring “The Block” back to the street.”  This will add a great street scape of retailers to the Congress and State Street interesting section of the Financial District.

Coverage on the BBJ notes, “the mixed-use project will include renovated offices, the addition of ground-floor retail and restaurant space, residential units and a boutique hotel. It’s knit together by a reinvigorated Quaker Lane — currently a rather dark back alley — into what Related Beal hopes will be a destination retail and nightlife location, as well as an improved Washington Street retail corridor.”

More information on the  mixed-use redevelopment project is available on bizjournals.com.

0 10 High Street is home to new food venue, Serafina

Serafina Boston

Credit: Boston.Eater

New food venue, Serafina, is destined for High Street in Boston. 10 High Street is an 88,000 square foot building with 11 stories.  The building is owned by Farley White Interests LLC which is a regional landlord which is also headquartered at 10 High Street.  Typical foor size is 7,051 square feet and was built in 1917 and renovated in 1988.  According to CoStar some of the tenant incude:

  • New England College of Business and Finance
  • Urbelis & Fieldsteel, LLP
  • Starpoint Solutions
  • Savings Bank of Maine Inc
  • BBIX

You can read more about the new Serafina on High Street on Boston.eater.com.

0 Boston Developers Contending for Financial District Tower

new Boston office tower financial district

Rendering of Accordia Partners’ proposed tower. Credit: Boston Globe

The shuttered garage that falls between Devonshire and Federal Street in the core of Boston’s Financial District shines brightly as an opportunity for eight suitors to make their mark on the Boston Skyline.  Tenants in recent quarters have flocked Downtown to take advantage of value rents and infrastructure driving office vacancy down to 10 percent.

The Boston Globe details the eight developers “have filed proposals for a skyscraper, several of which would be nearly as tall as the city’s largest, the Hancock Tower, on the site of a city-owned parking garage that is now closed. The competitors include a who’s who of local and national developers, a measure of how strong Boston’s real estate market has become…If approved, the Winthrop Square project would add another tower to the fast-changing Boston skyline. Already, five towers over 600 feet are proposed or are being built while other large complexes are under development downtown.”

You can read the full article on the Globe website

0 Downtown Crossing Grocery Store to Open on April 29th

Downtown Crossing Boston

Credit: BBJ

On April 29th you will now be able to buy everything from shiitake mushrooms to fresh salmon at Downtown Crossing in Boston.  Roch Bros. Supermarket will be opening their 25,000 square foot store at 8 Summer Street with hours from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. through 9 p.m. on Sundays.

Some background from the Boston Business Journal:

“The store will be the first supermarket in Boston’s Downtown Crossing neighborhood…[and] will employ 70 full-time and more than 200 part-time workers. Larry Baxter, an associate since 1983, will be store manager, while 16-year Roche Bros. veterans Marvin Alvarez and Krystle Bredeson will be assistant managers.

 

0 Downtown Boston Office Market spurred by Creative Service Firms

class a office space in Boston

Credit: B&T

Creative services firms are leading the charge into the Downtown market with their open floorplans.  The Class A and B office landlords are renovating their buildings to accommodate this change.  745 Atlantic Avenue has done an amazing job creating a cool vibe once you enter the lobby and move through the common areas of the building.  The new lobby give the feeling of an open loft combined with upmarket finishes.  In addition, ownership combined a “media infused map” showing the history of innovation of our city.

From a Banker & Tradesman editorial:

Ad agency Arnold Worldwide’s move from Back Bay to 125,000 square feet in the former Filene’s building last summer was a milestone for the Downtown Crossing office market, where the 60-story Millennium Tower Boston condos are the most potent symbol of the city’s development boom…But the Financial District, which contains more than half of Boston’s 63 million square feet of office space, is undergoing its own post-recession transformation. Architects, digital media shops and tech companies are responsible for some of the biggest lease deals of the year.

0 Ten Post Office Square Gets Update

10 Post Office Square office space in Boston, MA

Credit: Banker&Tradesman

10 Post Office Square is the latest acquisition by Synergy Investments that will be getting a makeover to attract today’s tech tenant. The price of $321 PSF was the winning number for the 82% leased asset which helps to anchor Post Office Square.

B&T notes, the makeover is designed to attract tech tenants with an updated lobby, new central reception area and conversion of lower-level space into a fitness center, bicycle storage and locker rooms, said Roger Breslin, senior vice president for leasing agent JLL. Collaborative workspaces and new food vendors are also planned…The 445,000-square-foot building is currently 82-percent leased.”

You can read the complete article on the modifications to 10 Post Office Square on Banker&Tradesman.

 

0 East Cambridge Office Space to Undergo Development

:64 Sidney Street, Cambridge office spaceChanges are on the move for East Cambridge, with a deal on the horizon for Vertex’s old HQ. According to the Boston Globe, “the deal will enable Biomed to begin renovating the buildings. They include two lab and office buildings at 200 Sidney St. and 40 Erie St., with a total of 239,000 square feet, that were leased to Vertex through this December, and another 21,000 square feet at 21 Erie St. that was leased to Vertex through May 2017.”

Follow the link to view available office space in East Cambridge, or the Kendall Square overview.

0 Post Office Square Offers Functional Tribute

Post Office Sq in Bostin in 1954

Post Office Square, 1954; Credit: Boston Globe

It starts with a vision for something better.  The city of Boston is a better place to live and work because of the efforts of Norman Leventhal.  Post Office Square wasn’t the jewel it is today back in the early ’80, rather an eyesore.  Thank you for all your efforts and vision that helped to make Boston what it is today.

An editorial on The Boston Globe includes the following excerpt:

Leventhal was a key player in Boston’s most recent great public-private construction project, the $15 billion Big Dig. As the project took root, he founded the Artery Business Committee, a group of downtown property owners and companies that kept watch on the project and shepherded it through times of political acrimony. He spent much of that time collecting feedback, making sure concerns were dealt with quickly.

“Norman made sure the project delivered on all its aspects,” said developer Tom O’Brien, who was the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s director during several years of Big Dig construction. “He made it a huge civic goal, and it totally changed the city.”

0 Boston Crowned Top City for Pedestrians

Boston ranks top city for pedestrians in walkscore

Credit: Walkscore

Boston in number 3 behind New York and San Francisco for most walkable cities. Walkscore.com has us with a score of 80 and following quote, “The Athens of America, Boston is a leader in technology and U.S universities including Harvard and MIT.”

Home to MBTA, the world’s first subway system and dubbed “The Walking City” Boston is a pedestrian’s perfect city. Bostonites can catch a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, or visit Boston Common, the oldest public park in the US.

The powerhouse investment firm, Fidelity Investments, solidified Boston’s spot in the Top 30 Most Economically Powerful Cities in the World. Healthcare professionals often relocate to Boston to work at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Top neighborhoods mentioned include Haymarket, Government Center and the North End.

https://www.redfin.com/how- walk-score-works