Credit: BBJ
Not only do we in Boston believe that we have a flurry of startup activity, other across the country believe so as well.
Here’s a quote from the BBJ that represents this perspective on the Hub:
“At almost every tech event I’ve been to in 2014, everyone ranging from entrepreneurs and investors to politicians has talked about the booming innovation scene in Boston, and how Boston needs to tout its successes.”
The complete Boston Business Journal article is available, here.
Credit: BBJ
LogMeIn expands in the Seaport.
The BBJ is reporting that LogMeIn “plans to add 450 jobs during the next five years with the help of about $2.5 million in tax breaks from the city. It could begin housing the first crop of new employees at a 100,000-square-foot space at 333 Summer St. in early 2016…It recently struck a tentative agreement with the landlord to take over the vacant space across from its headquarters at 320 Summer St., where the company currently employs 400.”
You can find additional information on the move on the Boston Business Journal.
Credit: CPexecutive
The owners of 1 Federal Street and 125 High Street in Boston are expanding their Boston Footprint. Pier 4 will be their new project that will consist of 350,000 RSF of Class A office space overlooking Boston Harbor.
According to CPexecutive, “Tishman Speyer, a global developer and owner of assets like Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Center in New York, said it expects to seek LEED gold certification for the project.”
You can read more about the Pier 4 Project on the CPexecutive website.
Four Cambridge Center
With the boost of office rents in East Cambridge, Downtown Crossing has become the new hotbed for Redline creative and tech companies with Class B rents still in the $30’s PSF.
The Boston Globe is reporting “Office rents in Kendall Square have hit an all-time high of almost $67 per square foot, breaking a record last set in 2001, according to the real estate brokerage Transwestern RBJ…Transwestern said the average asking rent on a top-tier office space in East Cambridge set a new record of $66.63 in the final quarter of 2014, edging out the previous record of $65.85 set in 2001. East Cambridge’s vacancy rate of 6.7 percent was lower than many parts of Boston’s central business district, but higher than those of the smaller office markets of South Station, North Station, and Longwood, whose vacancy rates ranged from 2 to 4.4 percent.”
Additional insight on the East Cambridge boom is available on the Boston Globe.
Office availability and neighborhood information for Downtown Crossing and Kendall Square are available on the following submarket pages:
Downtown Crossing offices
Kendall Square office space
Looking for a free lunch? Stop by the newest eatery in the Financial District at 185 Franklin Street on Wednesday January 21st from noon to 2 PM.
Credit: Bostinno.Streetwise
From Bostinno.Streetwise:
For those unfamiliar with Hale and Hearty Soups, the chain has numerous locations throughout Manhattan, Long Island and Brooklyn, New York. The restaurant serves up several “everyday soups” as well as a variety of rotating “daily specials.” In addition to soup, Hale and Hearty also offers sandwiches, salads and sweets. Take a peek at their menu, here.
Vision, patience and persistence have given Steven Samuels high marks in the real estate community with his transformation for the Fenway.
Credit: Boston Magazine
Boston Magazine put together an editorial that tracks Samuels’s personal development along with that of Fenway. Here’s an excerpt:
But the Verb and the new Fenway also tell a story about how to amass power in the most elegant of ways. Since acquiring his first Fenway properties more than 14 years ago, Samuels has united the neighborhood’s middle-class residents with top-tier financiers and the city’s notoriously fickle bureaucracy to arrive at a workable vision of what this dump of a place could become.
The full editorial is available on BostonMagazine.
One Broadway in Cambridge MA
Apple is expanding Siri in Cambridge by securing 11,500 RSF at One Broadway.
According to an article on CultofMac.com, “documents filed with local authorities show that the company has leased around 11,500 square feet of office space on the 13th floor of One Broadway, an office tower owned by MIT and located on the outer perimeter of the university’s campus in Cambridge, MA,” in an effort to expand its Siri team.
You can read the entire article the CultofMac website.
Retail is getting a makeover in Back Bay. Boston Properties will making some major announcements as it pertains to their new building 888 Boylston Street and the neighboring retail spaces.
From Women’s Wear Daily:
The Shops at the Prudential Center are about to get a major overhaul complements of Boston Properties…Executives there declined to name any of the incoming tenants just yet, but vowed to identify the retailer that has been secured for a nearly 9,000-square-foot space in the mall in the next few months.
The Pru’s food atrium is [also] said to be getting a serious makeover and Boston Properties reportedly will build a grand-scale new building for office space, luxury condos and retail nearby at 888 Boylston Street near Gucci’s current location. As reported, the first Primark store will bow in Boston later this year at Downtown Crossing as part of the multi-million dollar Millenium Tower and Burnham Building development project. Millenium Partners plans to build a 60-story glass tower near where the original Filene’s once stood.
In 2014 Boston benefited from some significant growth and 2015 looks to be more of the same.
The Boston Business Journal posted some numbers to illustrate Boston’s 2014 development:
One of the many contributing areas to the boom is the Boston Innovation District.
Credit: B&T
The recent trades on the Class A and B will provide the fuel for increased rent growth for 2015 as new owners justify their investment. Rent concessions and tenant improvement dollars will move the opposite direction.
“Rents in Boston’s Downtown Crossing have risen from $25 to $35 per square foot in the last two years, with growing demand from tech tenants…for tenants looking for pockets of value, good deals remain in the low-rise floors of Financial District buildings, where vacancies remain in the mid-teens and rents average in the low $40 range,” according to a quote from Joseph Sciolla, managing principal at CresaPartners Boston on Banker&Tradesman.
You can read the full article on the B&T website.