Credit: Bizjournals.com
Boston ranks 6th nationally for office vacancy.
According to a report on the BBJ, “at 12 percent vacancy, Boston’s office market dipped by 1.2 percent year-over-year and was the sixth-tightest in the U.S., the report said. New York and Washington, D.C. ranked as the tightest office markets, each with 9.1 percent vacancy, followed by San Francisco at 10.2 percent and Seattle at 10.9 percent.”
Additional details are available on its website, here.
1 Federal Street in Boston’s Financial District
1 Federal Street is headed for the sales block by Eastdil Secured. The building is expected to trade in excess of $682 per square foot.
According to Realert, “the 38-story tower is 98% occupied, with a weighted average remaining lease term of almost seven years. The largest tenant, law firm Morgan Lewis, occupies 301,000 sf on a lease that runs until 2023. Records-management company Iron Mountain is leasing 133,000 sf until 2024. Others tenants include Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Oppenheimer & Co. and U.S. Bank.”
Additional information is available on realert.
Bike rack affixed to an office building in Boston
Bikes are cool! My role as an office broker in the CBD of Boston is really that as an ambassador, historian, tour guide and advocate. How we traverse our city has changed since I moved back to Boston in 1993. Cars, buses, light rail, commuter rail and boats are very much the same as they were then, but what is different is bikes. We now have Hubway stations that rent bikes all over our city in areas ranging Black Falcon Terminal to 28 State Street. Additionally, office building owners are creating bike rack space inside and outside to accommodate the commuters that ride their own bikes.
The city of Boston needs to embrace this and continue to promote and provide safe areas for all forms of commuters and visitors.
From an article on TreeHugger.com:
New research presented by scientists at McGill University suggests that the construction of safe bike infrastructure could significantly reduce vehicle tailpipe emissions by offering potential motorists an attractive alternative to getting in their cars. Basically, it’s the “if you build it, they will come” philosophy many advocates lean on to champion bike infrastructure, backed up by scientists.
Credit: Boston Magazine
Boston is in the midst of a dramatic change of how we live, work and play within the city. The daytime and bedtime population is growing and the demand for services is far different than it was 20 years ago, but what hasn’t changed is how much we love our city and appreciate the history and culture that exists here. We are Boston and we love the quirks that makes this home.
Not all historic features and structures merit preserving, but some do. I am sure that prior to filling of what is now Back Bay was very controversial in 1857 when gravel and fill started arriving from Needham at a rate of twenty-five 35-car trains arrived every 24 hours.
With respect to the Citgo sign in Kenmore Square, Boston Magazine reports “the city’s Landmarks Commission met Tuesday night and granted the Citgo sign “pending designation” status. Next, the commission will prepare a report, and a public meeting will be held. If the commission approves its landmark status by a two-thirds vote, Mayor Marty Walsh has 15 days to approve or reject the proposal. If he rejects it, the City Council has 30 days to override his decision.”
You can read more on the status of the Citgo sign on Boston Magazine.
Credit: Wbur
Live, work, play and yes Swim. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to clean up the waterways that surround Boston and now some want to create floating docks to encourage swimming. “Love that dirty water” is now just a song by the Standdells and no longer reflects the conditions of our waterways.
From wbur:
The Charles River Conservancy, which hosts its fourth annual City Splash event Tuesday, has been making an effort in recent years to get more residents swimming in the Charles. Now, the conservancy wants to create a permanent floating dock on the river, near North Point Park.
“Due to decades and hundreds of millions of dollars of remediation, Boston and Cambridge are poised to set an example for other American cities by leading the country with a safe and innovative swimming facility that is accessible and beautiful,” Renata von Tscharner, conservancy founder and president, said in a statement.
Credit: Boston Business Journal
Ayr Muir, the founder and CEO of Clover wants to be in the middle if it all, choosing to put his office in the center of the flagship location at 160 Federal Street in the Financial District of Boston.
According to Bizjournals’ Boston publication, “it’s a move that likely has its roots in the transparency that Muir has been espousing since he opened the business in 2008 as a single food truck. The company’s employee handbook is posted online and mentions that ‘we’re going to ask you to learn (and help us learn) from EVERY SINGLE mistake you make. We love NEW MISTAKES, but we hate seeing the same mistakes again and again.’ Clover, which specializes in using data to track customer behavior and modify menu items, currently has nine locations in the Boston area.”
You can read more on Clover’s flagship location, here.
Credit: aimnet.org
Boston’s maritime operations will expand thanks in part to the expansion of the Panama Canal.
An article posted on the aimnet.org blog notes:
The Port of Boston is already benefitting from the expanded Canal. COSCO—China Ocean Shipping Company—is a longtime partner of the Port of Boston; the company recently committed to doubling the capacity of their ships calling on Boston from China. This will enable Massport’s Conley Terminal—the only full-service container terminal in New England—to handle significantly more volume. This translates into jobs and positive economic impact.
The U.S. Government has committed to funding a major dredging project for Boston Harbor, though the appropriation has not yet been finalized. In the meantime, some inner harbor dredging is taking place along with dock improvements. (Among the imports and exports moving through Conley Terminal are seafood, footwear, waste paper, scrap metal, furniture, beer and wine, and apparel.)
Credit: BBJ
Established in 1852, the Boston Public Library is scheduled to open its newly renovated streetscape, Café and radio studio.
From the BBJ:
The library’s central branch this Saturday will unveil the second phase of its $78 million renovation of the Johnson Building, which opened at 700 Boylston St. in 1972. The renovation’s first phase, which included a new children’s library, teen central and reference space, debuted last year.
The color scheme of the new sections primarily features blues, greens and a red-orange color aptly named “tawny daylily,” which were inspired by the John Singer Sargent murals at the McKim Building.
Credit: BBJ
Looking for hi-speed internet access in Boston and hoping to compare two providers? Well you can now Google it, and then hire Google.
According to Bizjournals.com:
Google Fiber agreed to acquire a company called Webpass, an internet service provider based in San Francisco that already serves Boston, Miami and Chicago, among other cities. ..Webpass, which offers residential internet service for $60 per month, says it has tens of thousands of customers across five major markets in the U.S. Google’s service is $70 per month, according to its website.
Google Fiber, a subsidiary of parent company Alphabet offers internet speeds of up to 1,000 megabits per second. It already serves cities such as Kansas City, Nashville, Atlanta and Austin. By comparison, Verizon FiOs offers internet speeds of up to 500 megabits per second.
Where is Bulfinch Crossing?
Credit: Boston Business Journal
According to the BBJ, “the long-delayed $1.5 billion plan to convert the hulking Government Center Garage into a six-building, 2.9 million-square-foot mixed-use project…spans almost 5 acres and two city blocks, centered around the 1.2 million square-foot,1960s-era parking and office complex at One Congress St. near Boston’s City Hall.
The Boston Business Journal also notes “at full buildout, the six-building project is slated to include:”
• 1.15 million square feet of office
• 85,000 square feet of retail
• 812 residential units
• 196 hotel rooms
• 1,160 parking spaces
• 1-acre “rooftop amenity” on the project’s west parcel
• 1+ acre urban public plaza on the project’s east parcel
You can read the BBJ article on the Boston Business Journal’s website.