0 SessionM’s Seaport Office Space Adds Style to Boston

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Farmhouse Chic office design in Boston Seaport

Credit: Bostinno

As tenants find new offices they decide what to bring from their old digs and how to create the vibe that defines who they are. Have a peek at what SessionM did to define their new digs in the Seaport.

From Bostinno:

SessionM does mobile loyalty software for large enterprises. When they moved into offices in Fort Point, the company thought about office design and decoration for the first time. It had built–and invited its employees to build–everything from light fixtures to heavy wooden tables. All have a farmhouse chic kind of appeal that will be familiar if you’ve been out to almost any restaurant built in the past five years.

Boston interior designer Haley McLane designed the Fort Point space for SessionM. Working for startups is interesting, she said, because of the importance of story and culture. “Being able to take a story and put it into physical space is really an interesting challenge,” she said. “Each company is different and therefore each design challenge is different.”

0 Boston Office Demand Poised for Best Year Since 2007

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Wil Catlin

The office market continues its upward push with the best year since 2007 and no signs of letting up. Increased rents combined with fewer tenant improvement dollars, increased construction costs and limited rent abatement make the total occupancy cost even higher.

Credit: BBJ

From the Boston Business Journal:

At 13 percent vacancy, Greater Boston notched the eighth-lowest office vacancy rate in the third quarter. That rate has stayed relatively flat, dropping just 0.2 percent year-over-year, the Reis report said…The increased demand for office space is driven by continued gains in the labor market, Reis said.

“Over the last seven years, not only has the number of total jobs created per month gradually increased, but the number of higher-wage, office-using jobs has also increased,” Severino said. “The labor market clearly shifted into a higher gear in 2014 and that is beginning to have a more consistent and material impact on the office market. Vacancy compression is poised on the precipice of accelerating in the next year or so.”

0 Seaport Shuttle Service Looks to Reduce Area Traffic

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

The success of the Seaport/Innovation District has created commuter chaos. The city leadership is looking at ways to mitigate this by decreasing 20 private bus routs down to just two. Office landlords have offered shuttle service to and from their buildings to commuter hubs like North and South Stations, which is great, but not with 20 buses making the same route at the same time.

According to the Boston Globe, “Consolidating the shuttles was a key piece in a far-reaching plan, funded by waterfront players, to address the gridlock. The report, made public in January, offered a long list of fixes big and small, from repairing and reopening the old Northern Avenue bridge for vehicular traffic to adding more Hubway bike-sharing stations in the area…Workers would show an ID to hop on board for free, just as they do now. Members of the public wouldn’t typically be allowed, though Peterson said shuttle drivers may wave them through on bad weather days. Eventually, other companies would be invited to join, and trips to the Back Bay and other locations could be considered.”

You can read the full article on the Boston Globe, here.

0 Millennium Tower Holds Topping Off Ceremony

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Wil Catlin

view of Millennium Tower mid construction

Credit: BBJ

The city skyline continues to emerge in Downtown Crossing with Millennium having its topping off ceremony.

It seems that, anywhere and everywhere one looks in Boston proper, the canary-yellow construction scaffolding and accompanying crane atop Millennium Tower is visible — peeking out from behind a Financial District building in Post Office Square, rising up behind the Federal Reserve building as one crosses the Summer Street bridge or smack in the middle of the 36th-story view of the Boston College Club at 100 Federal St…The tower celebrates its “topping off” ceremony this Thursday, which marks the end of structural construction. Millennium Tower residents are slated to move in next summer.

You can read the full article and view additional images of Millennium Tower on the Bizjournals website.

0 Office Space Now Serves as a Recruiting Tool

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Contemporist

Office space is no longer just a place to work, but rather a recruiting tool. Prospective employees not only are evaluating their financial compensation, additionally they investigate the work environment. The new office model encompasses much smaller footprint per employee while many more collaborative areas.

From Boston.com

The recent TripAdvisor and New Balance office unveilings in the greater Boston area have included variations on the same theme: these buildings are necessary to attract young talent.

With their spiffy, modern, amenity-filled new digs, these companies are competing with the likes of Google, Apple, and Amazon to get the top talent in the country and the world.

0 Most Desirable Office Space for Startups

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Wil Catlin

How does the start up sector communicate with the real estate word?

Credit: RE:Tech

According to a RE:Tech Snap Shot study of fifty New York tech startups, “Brokers who forge an early connection with these startups stand to profit handsomely if the firms take off. Several real estate firms are among the fastest-growing tech startups in New York, attracting millions in venture funding…The research survey also found that the vast majority of tech startups favor flexible, short-term leases. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said they favor a sublease over a lease. About 60 percent said their ideal lease term is between three and five years, while the remaining 40 percent preferred a lease term of between one and two years. None of the respondents were keen on five-year-plus lease.”

You can read the full results on RE:Tech.

0 Seaport Car Race Faces Contention

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston.com

This is a great venue for our city and should move forward. The impact is minor and the venue is only over a weekend, while the benefit extends our city to a new audience.

According to Boston.com, “Residents at a Seaport condo building want Boston to nix a planned IndyCar race in the neighborhood next Labor Day weekend, and sent a letter to Mayor Marty Walsh Tuesday detailing their problems with the event…It argues against the race series on several fronts, including: a lack of public input or meetings prior to the announcement of the race; concerns about noise, traffic, safety, the environment, and access to the condo building; legal claims arguing state law bars street racing and that the use of the roadways should have been put out to public bid; the possibility that the city will be on the hook to pick up some related costs; and more.”

You can read the full article on Boston.com

0 Prime Boston Office Rents Up Nearly 300% in Past 15 Years

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

The city of Boston continues to expand by building more residential and office buildings in areas once thought too far from the mainstream. Industrial and flex users have felt that impact along with office tenants that occupied old industrial buildings that have gone through complete renovations. $12 PSF office rents in the Boston Wharf portfolio from 15 years ago are now in the upper $40’s PSF.

From the Boston Globe:

Yet as real estate prices surge and development pushes into places that were long neglected, the pressures are rising on industrial space all over the city. Boston has just 3.6 square miles of land zoned for industrial use, less seemingly every week. Two prominent properties in the South End, for example, Quinzani’s Bakery on Harrison Avenue and the Flower Exchange on Albany Street, are being sold to developers.

“Not everybody works for Fidelity or Vertex,” said Michael Vaughan, a development consultant who is helping the food wholesalers in Widett Circle negotiate a potential move. “This is how people earn a good living and stay in the city of Boston. The challenge is how do you make sure there’s room for them in a very land-poor city.”

0 Boston Taxis Launch Smartphone App to Compete with Uber

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

How do you prefer to traverse the city; Uber, Lift or a yellow taxi? The taxis of the city are trying to level the field by launching their own app.

According to the BBJ, “the app, which can connect with Apple Pay or Google Wallet, has already launched in Philadelphia and New York City. More than 1,400 of the 1,600 licensed taxis in Philadelphia are already equipped with Verifone payment systems for credit card acceptance and are ready for Way2ride…there are currently 1,825 licensed cabs operating in the city of Boston…A Boston taxi industry group spokeswoman said it was too early to tell if the app would be a step in the right direction. Taxi union spokeswoman Donna Blythe-Shaw said she was more concerned with the fact that taxis are still forced to comply with more stringent and often-complex regulations than ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft.

You can read the full article on the Boston Business Journal’s website.

0 Leasing Office Space in Boston: Do you start with Google?

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Your business is growing and you’ve just secured your second round of funding; how do you search for your new office? Do you rely on a market expert or do you prefer to go at it alone?

A recent survey from RE:Tech › Insight notes “more than one-forth (25 percent) of early stage tech startups search commercial real estate broker. When beginning their online search, 90 percent of tech startups directly search for office space online without a broker in mind…the survey found that three quarters (75 percent) of tech startups don’t search for commercial real estate brokers.”