Author Archives: Wil Catlin

0 A Cleaner Boston

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Group of people pick up trash to clean up the city, Boston's streets

(Credit: The Boston Globe)

What are you doing to keep our city clean?  Perhaps like me you don’t live in the city but work here.  I am proud of the hard work of like-minded citizens to keep our city clean compared to what it was in years past with trash blowing in the streets and graffiti strewn across buildings, block after block. Keeping our city clean is a mindset and a commitment that I support.

A Boston Globe ‘letter’, in response to Jacoby’s “Don’t Trash my City,” reflects on the general cleanliness of the City:

“There is one neighborhood which is remarkably cleaner than ever: downtown Boston. From the edge of Government Center and the Financial District, past Downtown Crossing and the Theatre District, where I live, the area has undergone an amazing transformation. I know that this is thanks to the dozens of hard-working hospitality ambassadors employed by the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, a privately funded nonprofit on whose advisory council I serve.”

Follow the link to read ‘Don’t Trash my City” on BostonGlobe.com

0 Demolition to Begin on Filene’s in Downtown Crossing

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Demoliton on old Filenes building in downtown crossing

Credit: City of Boston (via BBJ)

More changes this week for Filene’s at Downtown Crossing. Parts of the historic structure will be incorporated into a new community park.

“On Saturday and Sunday, July 20 and 21st, workers from Suffolk Construction will demolish the remainder of the 1905 Jones, McDuffee and Stratton Co. building at the corner of Franklin and Hawley streets that housed Filene’s for many years…The new $615 million Millennium Tower will include 600 condominiums and apartments, up to 218,000 square feet of office space and 231,000 square feet of retail.”

Additional details are provided in the BBJ’s full article

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0 Tech Companies Set up Shop in Boston’s Financial District

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high street office building in the financial district

100 High Street in the Financial District

The Financial District is no longer home to bankers, mutual fund managers and lawyers. The Financial District of today is home to a great cross section of newly funded and well established tech companies. Within our client base we are seeing customers looking for Red Line access for their employees along with space that is competitively priced. Office spaces within the Class B market can range from upper $20’s to low to mid $30’s.

The Boston Business Journal reports, “Cassidy Turley, which represents landlords in lease deals, found that the Financial District’s volume of available Class A space fell to 4.4 million square feet, or 18 percent of total square footage, at the end of June. That’s down 20 percent from a year ago or 4.9 million square feet. It also represents the lowest availability rate for any second quarter since 2008 just prior to Wall Street’s crash.”

To read the full BBJ article, continue on to the Boston Business Journal’s website.

Available Office Space
Commercial Space for lease in Boston Financial District

0 New Shared Workspaces Opening in Kendall Square

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210 Broadway Street in Kendall Sq. in Cambridge

210 Broadway St. in Cambridge, MA

In light of the fierce competition of office space in Kendall Square, another shared-space option has put its stake in the ground, catering to the small user. For $400 per. month, you too can have a place to call “The Office” at 210 Broadway.

According to the BBJ, “NGIN, whose name was chosen because it sounds like engine, will open a 15,000-square-foot center 210 Broadway in Cambridge’s Kendall Square to serve as a “living lab that deploys advanced technology to explore the future of worklife,” according to the company’s marketing materials. The company is competing against Cambridge Innovation Center, Workbar, Dogpatch Labs and Geek Offices for a growing niche market.”

For more info, you can read the full BBJ article, here.

Related Real Estate Listings
Office Space in Kendall Square

0 Mayor Menino’s Departure to Impact Boston Real Estate

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Credit: Twitter.com @mayortommenino

Should we expect the new mayor of Boston address commercial development differently in the city? YES. We can agree or disagree with Mayor Menino, but change is coming.

The Boston Business Journal alluded to the prospective impact of Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s departure on the Boston real estate market:

“developers are salivating at the prospect that a new mayor will jump-start stalled projects that have been shunned by Mayor Thomas M. Menino…a handful of proposed commercial real estate projects have faced roadblocks at City Hall…But all that could change in January when Menino retires, a move that could also lead to changes at the top of the Boston Redevelopment Authority.”

You can read the full article on the Boston Business Journal’s website.

0 Boston Gets ‘Fresh Food Truck’

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Boston now has a food truck offering fresh raw vegetables and fruit.  It seems gone are the days of a truck that serves items that have been cooked or assemble weeks prior with little consideration for presentation or freshness. I wonder if you could request the bus to show up at your office or neighborhood using UBER?

Fruit Truck, fresh fruit bus in Boston

Credit: The Boston Globe

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0 Cambridge Office Rents Push Out Small Businesses

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Cambridge Center office space in Cambridge Mass

4 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA

If you’re a CEO of o a small software company that has recently been funded where do you go?  Well the next question is what can you prudently afford. Gone are the days of leasing as much space as you can and hoping for revenue. Today’s decision makers would love to continue to grow their business within close proximity of the think tanks at Harvard and MIT; the reality, however, is that those locations are being gobbled up by the large publicly-traded tech companies with a worldwide presence. The notion of paying $60 PSF doesn’t affect them as much when you compare it to pricing in London or Singapore.

The Boston Business Journal describes the surge in Class A office space in Cambridge, identifying the “one-year increase roughly equates to a 25-to-30 percent price hike for tenants seeking a new or expanded beachhead in the Bay State’s innovation hub.”

You can check out office space available in Cambridge or read the BBJ’s article.

0 Cambridge Office Space Consumed by Tech Companies

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Office space at Two Cambridge Place in Cambridge, MACurrently the East Cambridge/Kendall Square office market continues to see tight vacancies with increased rents. Of the 27 Class A buildings that list availability the average asking prices is $58.17 PSF this includes direct and sublets.  The rumblings are these prices will continue to march North squeezing those with limited financial capacity. The squeeze is due, in large part, to an influx of technology companies consuming clusters of prime commercial real estate in Cambridge.

According to a recent BBJ editorial, “the list of companies swallowing chunks of new space and driving up rents in the process reads like a Who’s Who of Silicon Valley. Amazon.com just locked in 100,000 square feet at 101 Main St., while Oracle Corp. and Twitter Inc. recently rolled up a flurry of acquisitions to bring their local footprints to 82,000 square feet and 30,000 square feet, respectively. Facebook is on the prowl for a local 5,000-to-10,000-square-foot toehold, while Google Inc. remains Boston Properties’ best friend as it incrementally adds to the 300,000-plus already under contract at 4 and 5 Cambridge Center.”

Follow the link to read the full Boston Business Journal article, Cambridge tenants get whipsawed by big tech

Cambridge Office Space for Lease
Commercial Real Estate in Kendall Sq.

0 Boston and Houston Markets Catalyze Drop in National Vacancy Rates

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Commercial real estate in Boston ranks forth in vacancy rates among U.S. office markets.

“According to new data from leading real estate company CB Richard Ellis, vacancy rates fell in 10 out of 13 of America’s largest office markets in the second quarter, with Houston and Boston charging the decline,” an article on ipinglobal.com states.

US office market statistics

Credit: ipinglobal

The original article and additional analysis is available on ipinglobal’s website

0 Boston Cityscape: Blend of Historic and Modern

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Boston public garden

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Boston in the eyes of our kids is much different than our own. I had the benefit of a field trip with my first grader, and he has fallen in love with the swan boats in the public garden. Cranes, cranes and more cranes. “Dad what are they building over there?” This seemed like a constant question now, but when we look back 5 years, who knows what will have already been transformed.

Craig Douglas of the BBJ aptly articulates the blend of modern and historic elements that’s germane to Boston:

“What is most amazing about Boston is the fact that it is all so new. Cranes and work crews are everywhere, as are restaurants and hipster worker bees. New glass. New granite. Green space galore. Clean causeways and spit-shined store shingles, all this in a near 400-year-old city.”

The full article is up on the Boston Business Journal’s website: Boston – something to behold