Author Archives: Wil Catlin

0 Boston Office Trends: Seaport, Kendall Sq. and Back Bay Near pre-2008 Crash

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Franklin Street office space in Boston

Image Credit: Boston Globe

The value option in Boston office leasing, the Financial District, holds the single largest concentration of office space and workers. Submarkets like the Seaport, Kendall Square, and Back Bay are pushing numbers in excess of the pre-2008 crash.

From the Boston Globe:

Data from the Boston office of Colliers International show that vacancy rates for the upper reaches of buildings in the Financial District — floors 20 and above — are at their highest in nearly a decade. And as a whole, the Financial District lost more tenants per square foot in 2016 than any other area in the city, ending up with nearly 850,000 more square feet of vacant space than in 2015…The Seaport District remains the new “it” address, with companies leasing an additional 400,000 feet of office space in 2016.

0 Winthrop Square Skyscraper Faces Size Reduction

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From flight paths to shadows, Winthrop Square continues to make headlines as the newest proposed tower in the Boston Financial District. Some speculate that the tower height will be reduced by 4 – 6 stories to lessen the impact.

Winthrop square office tower in Boston

Credit: Boston Globe

According to the Boston Globe, “A tower that tall, a Massport official wrote, would interfere with operations at Logan, blocking a popular takeoff corridor and probably leading to more noisy air traffic over Boston’s northern and western suburbs. Massport would object to anything taller than 710 feet on the site, which sits about two miles west of the airport.” The globe article continued, noting “cutting the tower by 65 feet would lop four or five stories off the 60-story tower, probably not a deal-killer for a project estimated to cost $1 billion. But that could reduce the city’s payday. Under Millennium’s deal with the BPDA, $50.8 million of the $152.8 million purchase price is tied to the sale of condos in the tower.”

For more information, jump over to read the full Globe article.

0 Boston: The Footwear Capital

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Converse office space in Boston

Credit: The Daily Astorian

The roster of footwear brands with a headquarters or significant presence in Boston is vast and celebrated:

  • Converse
  • Reebok
  • New Balance
  • Converse
  • Wolverine
  • Saucony
  • Keds
  • Sperry
  • Rockport
  • Clarks
  • Puma

From The Daily Astorian:

“These companies cluster because they’re primarily looking for talent. You want to be where the people are,” said Matthew Powell, a sports industry analyst for the NPD Group, a New York-based market research firm. “They’re also trying to stay close to their consumer. Millennials are clustering in large cities, so it’s a great way to be plugged into where your consumer is.”

The moves also affirm New England – historically the nation’s footwear-making region – remains a viable center of the industry, said Nate Herman, a senior vice president at the American Apparel & Footwear Association trade group.

0 Bulfinch Crossing Development Has Commenced

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Demolition has commenced for HYM’s Bullfinch Crossing project with completion scheduled for September 1st 2019.

Bulfinch Crossing map

Credit: Bldup

From Bldup:

Bulfinch Crossing is a 2.9 million square foot multi-phased development project that will replace the existing above-grade concrete Government Center Garage with a pedestrian-friendly streetscape, a public plaza and six mixed-use buildings on two appropriately-scaled urban blocks spread across approximately 4.8 acres. The demolition of a major portion of the garage over Congress Street will allow for daylight to shine on Congress Street for the first time in more than 40 years.

When fully built, there will be…1.15 million gross square feet of office space and 82,500 gross square feet of retail space at Bulfinch Crossing.

More information on the project is available on BulfinchCrossing.com.

0 Seven Significant Boston Real Estate Projects slated for 2017

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Boston real estate projects planned for 2017

Credit: Curbed

Seven new projects are scheduled to break ground in ’17 in Boston. Fears of a slowdown are not adopted by developers of Boston real estate.

Curbed, Boston outlines the 7 new projects slated for this year. Six of the properties are located in the Greater Boston area and one in Watertown, MA:

Boston

  • 171 Tremont Street
  • 700 Atlantic Ave
  • A St & Necco Ct
  • 660 Summer St
  • Dorchester Ave & Hancock St
  • Commonwealth Avenue & Brookline Ave

Watertown

  • 485 Arsenal St

0 Green Office Buildings Improve Productivity and Quality of Sleep

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Tired working in office conference room

Credit: BBJ

When considering your new office building studies show that a “green” building leads to workers scoring higher cognitively. The Massachusetts RMV building is Roxbury closed by the Weld administration due to “sick building syndrome” and had to relocate 600 workers.

From Highbeam:

Workers in certified “green” buildings score 26.4 percent higher on cognitive function tests, when compared with workers at the same companies who happen to work in a non-certified building, according to a new study out from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

The green-building workers also had sleep scores that were 6.4 percent higher than their coworkers in non-green buildings. The study controlled for job category, education and salary.

 

0 Back Bay Towers over Mass Turnpike at ‘1000 Boylston’

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The air rights over the Turnpike might soon see the way forward for two new Back Bay Towers. The current plan for both buildings is residential with street-level retail.

rendering of office towers at 1000 Boylston

Credit: Curbed

According Curbed’s Boston vertical, “the whole affair hinges on building a 23,000-square-foot platform over the Turnpike…On that podium would go a six- to seven-story base for both towers. That base would contain 33,000 square feet of retail, amenities, and lobbies as well as 303 parking spaces.”

Additional info on 1000 Boylston is available on Curbed.

0 Back Bay’s Most Modern Office Building at 888 Boylston Continues to Attract Tenants

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Back Bay office building on Boylston st

Credit: BBJ

Back Bay’s newest office building continues to attract tenants as Accenture announces its move into 52,340 square feet of space. 888 Boylston Street is Boston Properties’ new 17-story 425,000 building. The complex also includes 800 Boylston Street, 101 Huntington Avenue and 111 Huntington Avenue.

According to the BBJ, “Boston Properties developed 888 Boylston, a 17-story, $275 million office and retail building in Boston’s Back Bay. The property was designed to be ‘the most sustainable building in Boston,’ said Bryan Koop, Boston Properties’ executive vice president.”

More details on Accenture’s move to 888 Boylston Street are available on the Boston Business Journal, here.

 

0 Darkness Looms over Winthrop Square Tower Project

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The shadows that will be cast from Millennium Partners proposed Winthrop Square project might darken this development. Who knew, or who should have known, that shadow effect on the Common and Public Garden existed?

Winthrop Square tower casts shadows

Credit: Boston Globe

From the Boston Globe:

Millennium’s proposal, according to the developer’s analysis, would be out of compliance on average about 36 minutes a day over the course of a year on the Common and on average about five minutes a day over the course of a year on the Garden.

“You can correct for water with irrigation. You can correct for nutrients with fertilizer,” said Liz Vizza, executive director of the Friends of the Public Garden. “You cannot correct when you lose light.”

0 GE Closes in on Seaport HQ Construction

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GE HQ in Fort Point Boston

Credit: BBJ

The GE campus in Boston’s Seaport has taken its first step in the construction process with the city issuing building permits to asbestos abatement.

From the Boston Business Journal:

Brian M. Campbell on Dec. 22 received a $258,000 building permit for the buildings at 5 and 6 Necco Court. Work will include asbestos and lead abatement in the properties, as well as selective interior demolition to access the surfaces impacted by those materials, the building permit states.

The two five-story Necco buildings date to the early 1900s and are former factories for New England Confectionary Co., which made NECCO wafers. Together, the buildings span 110,000 square feet. GE plans to rehabilitate the brick-and-beam buildings into 95,400 square feet of gross floor area…The campus will also include a newly built 12-story office, which includes a solar veil and an illuminated GE logo. The three buildings together will span 388,070 square feet and include 61,490 square feet of outdoor public space.