0 Eight Proposals Compete for Winthrop Square in Boston

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Wil Catlin

proposed buildings in Winthrop Square in Boston's financial district

Credit: Curbed Boston

According to Curbed, plans to plunk one of Boston’s biggest real estate developments in living memory on the squat Winthrop Square Garage took a big step forward on Wednesday, with the city transferring garage ownership to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The agency will now set about in earnest choosing a developer for the project” from the following eight proposals – click through to Curbed Boston to read more about each submission:

Millennium Partners
Thomas O’Brien
Accordia Partners
Hudson Group North America
Trinity Acquisitions
The Fallon Co.
Steven Belkin of Trans National Properties
Lincoln Property Co.

0 Dorchester Avenue Eyed for Development

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

Dot Ave is on the move in the city with the BRA signaling a change in zoning. According to public record Dot Ave has:

363 Parcels
$3,675,133 is tax revenue

According to the Boston Globe, “the Boston Redevelopment Authority is circulating sketches of what a stretch of the street lined by low-rise warehouses and staging yards would look like as a corridor of retail and apartment buildings, some as tall as 300 feet. There would be parks laced throughout, with better sidewalks and 12 blocks of new streets added in back toward the South Bay Rail Yard…zoning plans are the clearest progress yet after months of community meetings to rezone the Dorchester Ave. corridor…The plan would radically remake a three-quarter-mile-long, light industrial area north of the Andrew MBTA station into a walkable, transit-accessible hub of new housing, with green space and pleasant storefronts.”

You can read more on the proposed Dorchester Avenue development on the Boston Globe.

0 Boston Restaurants Launch Waterfront Shipping Containers

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston.com

Some Boston restaurants are moving away from brick and mortar and migration to shipping containers. Jamestown’s Drydock facility is home to many of these new venues.

From Boston.com:

The term sheet for the Boston project says the company [Mei Mei] will lease up to eight custom-built shipping container kiosks. It’s all part of $100 million in upgrades to the The Innovation and Design Building as a whole, according to the building’s…other companies moving into containers include Niche Urban Garden Supply, Drydock Exchange, and the hair salon Cut-Splice. The kiosks will be open year-round and the space will offer indoor and outdoor seating.

0 Boston Office Market Trends: 2010-2015

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Wil Catlin

If your company signed an office lease during the Great Recession chances are your rents are looking pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Office space in Boston is growing increasingly more expensive. So much so current asking rents are at some of the highest they have ever been. The top floors of the Prudential building are asking $90 per rentable square foot…$90!

Boston Office Market Trends

The urban leasing team at Boston Realty Advisors wanted to know how much has changed in the last five years across all of Greater Boston’s major neighborhoods: East Cambridge, Seaport, Financial District, Back Bay, North Station. They included image break downs of each market on asking rental rates and vacancy rates for the top tier buildings (Class A) and the middle market buildings (Class B). The facts are astounding!

If your company’s lease is expiring in the next 12-24 months chances are the second fixed expense on your balance sheet next to payroll will be increasing if you wish to renew. Now is the time to engage your real estate team on how the current market dynamics will impact the company’s short and long terms plans for office space, the company’s bottom line, and how your company uses its current space. Knowing the options, risks, and opportunities in the current real estate climate is the best hedge against a rising market. Its starts with being proactive. Time can be your best leverage but quickly your worst enemy when it is running out.

Robert LeClair is Managing Director and Partner at Boston Realty Advisors having handled hundreds of lease transactions for clients in Greater Boston for over the last 10yrs.

Click here to download the full PDF: Boston Office Market Trends 2010-2015

0 Modifications and Atrium Planned for 100 Federal Street

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Herald

More glass is proposed to head to Boston’s Financial District, with a new atrium planned for 100 Federal Street along with retail and restaurant space.

Boston Properties purchased 100 Federal Street on March 13th 2012 for $610M
The building consists of 1,323,000 RSF in 40 Stories with the average floor plate of 28,000 RSF
26 Elevators with 2 being freight
The building was built in 1971

From the Boston Herald:

The designs also indicate plans to convert 69,845 square feet of basement space into parking at the 41-story Financial District tower known as the “pregnant building.”  “We are pleased to be working with the city to transform the plaza outside 100 Federal St. into an enclosed and vital gathering space for the downtown community,” said Bryan Koop, Boston Properties’ senior vice president and regional manager. “The weather-protected atrium … is planned to complement the outdoor space at Post Office Square Park and will be programmed with restaurants and events to bring a more active and lively streetscape to the base of the tower.”  Current designs include 8,500 square feet of retail, 500 square feet for kiosks and an 8,990-square-foot winter garden in an angled atrium with a glass facade.

0 Jason Weissman Offers 2016 Economic Outlook

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bisnow

Jason Weissman, founder of Boston Realty Advisors, gives the Biznow audience his economic outlook for 2016:

Last year, four out of five deals were by companies in industries that previously were only minor players downtown: life science, pharma and healthcare. Millennials accounted for about 75% of Boston’s population growth, Jason says. Look for office vacancy rates in Boston and Cambridge to drop by 200 bsp and rents to rise. Since 2010 in the popular East Cambridge and Seaport office markets, asking rates have jumped nearly 65%, he tells us. In the severely supply constrained luxury condo sector, the only major projects are Millennium Tower, One Dalton, 50 Liberty and Pier 4 (for which BRA’s Advisors Living is the marketing consultant).

You can read the full article on Bisnow.

0 Greater Boston Commute Time vs Price per Square Foot

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Commute times on public transportation versus diving can vary greatly if you depart at the exact time into Boston. Commuters that depart early regardless of public or private can reduce their commuting time. I live west of Boston and ride in on the Pike, if I hit the Weston tolls by 6:05 AM my ride door to door is 26 minutes. If I hit the tolls by 8:15 I can plan on an hour +/-.

Credit: NeighborhoodX

According to a Boston.com article, “Constantine Valhouli, the cofounder of NeighborhoodX, a neighborhood-specific reporting and data startup, compiled the commuting information by measuring the time it takes to get from each town to North Station. He found each of the commute times via a Google query between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and used the longest of the available transportation options, to get a more conservative estimate. Hoping to understand the relationship between location and price, Valhouli found there are places in Boston that often get overlooked…Some places he mentioned were Chelsea, which held the second fastest commute time to North Station behind the North End, at 14 minutes, Quincy at 21 minutes, and Revere at 26 minutes. was built between 1802 and 1804 and was designed by Boston’s famous architect, Charles Bulfinch. It is now called St. Stephen’s Church.”

You can read the full article on Boston.com.

0 Month-to-Month Office Space

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Wil Catlin

The workforce that rides to work on our public transpiration and roadways if very different today than it was 10 years ago. Shared workspace environments like WeWork have changed how business’s get up and running and reduced some of the barriers to going out on your own.

0 Boston Office Sale Sets High-Water Mark for the Year at $1.3B

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Wil Catlin

500 Boylston Street office building back bay

Credit: BBJ

The office and retail real estate border by: Boylston Street, Berkeley Street, St. James Avenue and Clarendon Street has traded hands from Equity Office to Oxford Properties for $1.29 billion.

The addresses include 500 Boylston Street and 222 Berkeley Street in Boston’s Back Bay.

“The deal crosses the $1,000 per square foot barrier, with the 706,862-square-foot, 25-story 500 Boylston St. selling for $1,068 per square foot, and the 519,608-square-foot, 22-story complex at 222 Berkeley St. selling for $1,029 per square foot. Just a handful of deals have crossed that mark in Greater Boston’s sales history,” according to a BBJ article.

You can read more on the sizable transaction on the Boston Business Journal’s website, Bizjournals.com.

0 Boylston Street Office Rents Rank 7th on List of Country’s Most Expensive

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Herald

Boylston Street in Boston’s Back Bay is expensive, but not too expensive. In the 2nd quarter of this year my company signed an expansion and renewal at 745 Boylston Street after conducting a thorough search for alternate options. We chose to stay and expand based on our attraction to the area’s amenities, proximity to highways and our customers.

Office rents on Boylston Street, however, do rank among the priciest in the country, according to the Boston Herald.

From the Boston Herald:

The Back Bay’s main thoroughfare has an average rent of $67.44 per square foot, thanks to its marquis office properties and tenant list dominated by hedge funds, and private equity and law firms, according to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle, a Chicago commercial real estate company…Those factors have allowed Boylston Street landlords to raise rents 1.3 times faster than on other cities’ most expensive streets since 2013, the JLL report states. And Boston Properties’ 888 Boylston St., a 17-story office tower set for completion next summer, already has signed record-high leases.