Author Archives: Wil Catlin

0 157 Berkeley Street is 8th Largest Office Building in Back Bay

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Berkeley Street office building in Boston's Back Bay

Photo Credit: Boston Business Journal

Back Bay’s newest address unveiled in a big way; in fact, 157 Berkeley Street opened as the 8th largest office building in Back Bay.

Here’s the complete list:

1.      John Hancock Tower – 200 Clarendon Street – 1,755,398 RSF

2.      The Prudential – 800 Boylston Street – 1,207499 RSF

3.      111 Huntington Avenue – 859,053 RSF

4.      500 Boylston Street – 760,000 RSF

5.      200 Berkeley Street – 747,000

6.      131 Dartmouth Street – 609,000 RSF

7.      501 Boylston Street – 607,685

8.      157 Berkeley Street – 580,000

The newly completed 157 Berkeley St. will serve as the new Back Bay HQ of Liberty Mutual. The Boston Business Journal covered the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new 22-story office building in the Back Bay, and described the scope of the project:

“Liberty Mutual broke ground on the $300 million expansion project in 2010. The 590,000-square-foot building at 157 Berkeley St. building will accommodate more than 600 new, full-time Liberty Mutual Insurance employees at the expanded Boston offices.”

The complete BBJ article is available on the Boston Business Journal website.

0 Green Office Space: How Much of a Consideration is it for You?

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office space interior at 75 state street in Boston

Photo Credit: Boston.com

How important is reducing your carbon footprint when you are searching for new office space?  This question does not come up with all clients that are looking for space, but I would say that most care.  Being that they care doesn’t mean they would like to spend more for it; they would be most interested when their green efforts could also reduce the cost to run the building. For example, lower HVAC costs result from better insulation and more efficient building systems.

What is LEED? LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is transforming the way we think about how our buildings and communities are designed, constructed, maintained and operated across the globe. Comprehensive and flexible, LEED is a green building tool that addresses the entire building lifecycle recognizing best-in-class building strategies.

Landlords use LEED Certification to differentiate themselves amongst their peers. Some claim to be the first LEED Gold certification while others claim the most improved say from Silver to Platinum. Massachusetts currently ranks 4th amongst all states with 106 projects certified in 2012 or 13,395,597 square feet.

Boston.com recently noted Grant Thornton’s green considerations in its relocation to the Financial District, “Another benefit of the new office: It is designed to help reduce the firm’s carbon footprint…All workspaces have access to natural light as well as to modern conference and team rooms.”

0 Boston Waterfront Real Estate Booming

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building at 200 Seaport Boulevard in Boston's waterfront

World Trade Center Boston, 200 Seaport Blvd.

Well, call it what you’d like: Seaport/Innovation/Fort Point; the reality is the area has blossomed for a myriad companies. Since the sale of the Boston Wharf portfolio we have seen a steady influx of capital to renovate old, tired buildings that had roof leaks, failing windows, and inoperable elevators. The addition of the Turnpike exit and the convention center has added to the core infrastructure that’s helping to accommodate the demand for office space and housing. In the past 30 months, rents in Class B buildings have increased from the upper $20’s to the low $40’s PSF.

Banker & Tradesman recently explored the roots, and validity, of the waterfront’s building ‘boom’:

“with Menino riding into the sunset, it’s high time to find out whether the so-called waterfront building boom is real or instead government-driven at the behest of one of the nation’s most powerful big city mayors.”

B&T’s complete article is available here

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