0 Newbury Street Remains ‘Super-Submarket’ within the Back Bay

Posted on January 24, 2019 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bisnow

Newbury Street has been a passion of mine since the early ’80’s when I spent time doing deliveries for my late father’s art gallery. Thank you to: Bisnow, Aaron Twersky, David Gerzof Richard, AVALT, Asana Partners, Jamestown, Dartagnan Brown, UrbanMeritage, BIGfish Communications

The Newbury Street ‘super-sub’ market has continued to develop and flourish since that time into its current iteration, where “the spaces above the ground floor are now some of the most desirable workspaces in Boston. These 207 buildings in Back Bay form a submarket within a submarket, a working enclave totaling over 3M SF. Properties on Newbury Street are able to leverage a built-in cool factor that most office buildings and new developments can’t duplicate. Unlike other Boston submarkets with seasonal attractions, Newbury Street is a year-round destination — the neighborhood has a perpetual energy,” according the Bisnow.

“You never have to leave the street. Every possible food and beverage option, as well as every type of service, is just steps from your office front door,” Back Bay Association President Meg Mainzer-Cohen said. “Newbury Street is also a stone’s throw from a park system that is one of the best in the country, including Boston Public Garden and the Esplanade, making it easy to step out and recharge.”

You can read the full Bisnow article on its website, here.

0 Renovations Planned for Seaport World Trade Center

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Real estate changes keep coming to Boston, not only in new construction, but also an assortment of renovations planned throughout the Seaport submarket. One notable update is slated for The Seaport Word Trade Center, which is poised to add 30,000 SF of retail space to its existing 804,000 SF footprint.

Among the intended modifications to Seaport World Trade Center are “plans to close Commonwealth Hall, an existing exhibition space at the Seaport World Trade Center, and create new conference and event facilities at the Seaport Hotel,” a recent article on the BBJ notes.

Further details on the expected renovations are available on the Boston Business Journal.

0 The Creation of a Neighborhood: Boston’s Seaport

Posted on October 4, 2018 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

What does it take to build a neighborhood in Boston? The creation of the Seaport is just that: in just over a decade we have gone from dirt lots, through planning, to a famed destination location that supports life, work & play.

Urbanland recounts a number of key milestones that propelled the development of the contemporary Boston Seaport:

With the completion of the Big Dig, it became clear that there was “an opportunity to develop a new city” in the Seaport, recounts Charles Leatherbee, director of development for Skanska USA, which has constructed multiple office and residential projects there since, including a 225,000-square-foot (21,000 sq m) office project in the marine park that broke ground in June. Observes Leatherbee, “Make no mistake, the Seaport has access to the single greatest resource the city has—the harbor—and they’ve been able to develop something quite cool, in my view.”

Additional Market Info
• Boston Seaport Real Estate
• Office Space for Lease in Boston Seaport

0 Prospective Motor Mart Garage Redevelopment Would Boost Back Bay

Posted on October 4, 2018 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Back Bay clearly is a destination for development in the City of Boston. If falls outside the FAA’s domain and doesn’t interfere with the “shadow effect”. One prime example is the Motor Mart Garage at 201 Stuart Street in Boston.

According to the BBJ, “the Motor Mart Garage redevelopment ‘would feature building a 310-foot residential tower atop the eight-story garage and converting 365 parking spaces into residential units…The 20-story tower would contain 222 apartments and condominiums, while the garage’s western portion would be converted into 84 residential units.'”

“The project’s height was considered as a continuation of the high spine of Boston,” the development team wrote in the Sept. 10 project notification form.

Additional details on the redevelopment are available on the Boston Business Journal, or you can view the detail page for further information Back Bay office space.

0 Modern Workers Need Walls for Max Productivity

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bisnow

Open offices are not the solution to all our problems.The greater population needs some level of quiet workspace to perform their tasks and not face the endless interruption.

A study from Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban of Harvard Business School and Harvard University notes the following:

[in open office spaces] “you are constantly on view and worried about being seen talking, or having your conversations overheard, people chose to email or use a messaging system instead…And because people were emailing and messaging more rather than speaking face to face, the quality of interactions declined and productivity suffered.”

Additional information on the study is available at Bisnow, here.

0 A Seaport Gondola Remains a Possibility

Posted on June 24, 2018 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

Would you ride it if they built it? Now that is the question. To tell you the truth, I personally don’t have an answer. If it was efficient and saved time, absolutely.

From the Boston Globe:

The Boston Planning and Development Agency “is planning to spend $400,000 studying transit options in a neck of Boston that has become so difficult to access that some are suggesting sailing over clogged streets…The study will likely take more than a year, and consider whether additional bus, rail, ferries, bike-share, and ride-hailing services can help. And it will also look at the polarizing proposal to run cable cars far above Summer Street as part of an aerial gondola system…The gondola proposal might sound fanciful, but a major development firm is willing to cough up $100 million for it.”

0 How Stable is Boston’s Flourishing Seaport?

Posted on June 24, 2018 by Wil Catlin

Boston’s Seaport will continue to be on the forefront by planning ahead as construction and development continues. Lower-Level and 1st-floor space is no longer used for utility infrastructure, developers and landlords. New projects house these systems on the 2nd floor or the roof, where appropriate.

Credit: The Architect’s Newspaper

290 Congress Street, owned by Boston Properties, utilizes a water fence that gets installed should it be necessary. To-date this has only been used once in March of 2018.

From the Financial Post:

in this old city’s booming Seaport District, General Electric is building its new world headquarters, Amazon is bringing in thousands of new workers, and Reebok’s red delta symbol sits atop the new office it opened last year. Three businesses are testing self-driving cars, other dynamic companies are planting their flag, and trendy restaurants and apartments have gone up virtually overnight. But after bad flooding during a storm this past winter, critics wonder whether it was a bright idea to invest so much in a man-made peninsula that sits barely above sea level.

Environmental activists warn much of the district, transformed from a wasteland of surface parking lots, rotting piers and abandoned rail yards into an economic engine and one of the city’s most expensive neighbourhoods in a matter of years, simply isn’t prepared for the long haul.

0 The MidTown Hotel on Huntington Ave Slated for Residential Tower

Posted on June 24, 2018 by Wil Catlin

Former Hotel on Huntington Ave site of new Tower

Credit: Curbed Boston

Could the Midtown Hotel site be the home to the next office or residential tower in Boston Back Bay? Speculation says Back Bay would be most receptive to height.

A sale of the one-acre site would likely lead to a much larger building in the 159-room hotel’s place, per the Globe’s Tim Logan. And that sale would likelier be on the pricier side, reflecting the skyrocketing land values of prime development sites in downtown Boston in general.

For instance, the MidTown site’s lease could go for as much as $80 million—$15 million more than developer Carpenter & Co. paid in 2014 for the smaller site that became One Dalton, which is on its way to being one of the five tallest towers in New England.

Additional information is available on Curbed Boston.

0 Northern Avenue Bridge Renovation Billed as ‘Postcard for Boston’

Posted on June 24, 2018 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

Boston Seaport continues to be a destination for those who want to live, work and play in Boston’s newest neighborhood. The result of this influx has been traffic and headache. The Northern Avenue Bridge rehab won’t reduce traffic, but it will add a vibrant pedestrian connection back to the Financial District.

According to the Boston Globe, “the City of Boston has come up with this concept: an elevated, steel-truss bridge with dedicated lanes for pedestrians, bicyclists, and cars. The fixed span could be covered, and piers could be built to extend over the water. Cafes, shops, and public art could also line the bridge.”

‘It has the potential of being one of those places that serves as a postcard for Boston,’ said Rick Dimino, the president of A Better City, a Boston business group, and chair of the city’s advisory task force on the bridge.

The full Globe article is available on its website, here.

0 Host of Ferries Heading to Boston Harbor

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Wil Catlin

Getting from here to there across Boston Harbor is poised to get a little easier in the coming months.

Credit: Boston Globe

The Boston Globe recently highlighted three ferry services that could be available to commuters in and around the Boston Seaport in the coming months:

Wynn Resorts…hired Charlestown-based Boston Boatworks to build three ferries. The goal is to cart about 40 riders at a time to and from its Encore Boston Harbor resort casino in Everett, scheduled to open next year.
A commuter ferry between the Seaport and Lovejoy Wharf North Station is expected to launch as soon as September, providing easier passage to the Seaport for commuters from the north.
The Institute of Contemporary Art will soon launch a ferry from its Seaport museum to East Boston, where it’s opening a secondary campus in June. This service, however, isn’t commuter-friendly; spokeswoman Colette Randall said passengers will need either a ticket or membership with the ICA to board.