Category Archives: Back Bay office space

0 Prudential Center Security Robot? Yep!

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Security is changing in our office and retail centers with the introduction of Robots. Boston Properties is a leader with the introduction of their robot at the Prudential Center in May.

Security Robot on patrol

Credit: Boston Globe

From the Boston Globe:

Dennis Crowley, senior vice president with Allied’s integrated technology group, said a similar robot in California recently used its thermal imaging technology to identify a hair curler someone had left on at a boutique kiosk after closing for the night.

The robot alerted security guards at the nearby command center.

“So they were able to prevent a fire,” Crowley said.

0 Available Office Space in Back Bay: 745 Boylston Street

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Back bay office building

745 Boylston Street in Boston’s Back Bay

Boston Realty Advisors has been retained by Upland Capital to exclusively represent 745 Boston Street in Boston’s Back Bay. The building is a 112,000 square foot 8 story building with Verizon and Max Brenner as the retail tenants.

The building currently has just over 18,000 square feet available and can accommodate tenants from 1,700 – 12,000.

Building Details
• 745 Boylston Street Back Bay
• Property Brochure
• Floor plan

 

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 Back Bay Towers from Liberty Mutual Go up for Sale

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Back Bay office building for sale on 75 Arlington St

75 Arlington Street in Back Bay

Liberty Mutual Insurance is looking to take some cash off the table with their announcement that they will be selling 10 St. James Ave. and 75 Arlington St. in Back Bay.

10 St James Avenue
• 565,758 RSF
• 19,606 RSF/Floor
• 20 Stories
• Built in 2001
• 400 Parking Spaces
• Last sale was $342,700,287 in January of 2006

75 Arlington Street
• 244,000 RSF
• 25,000 RSF/Floor
• 00 Stories
• Built in 1914
• Last sale was $147,799,713 in January of 2006

From the BBJ:

The Boston-based insurer occupies about 40 percent of the 825,000 square feet of space in the two buildings, it said. In recent years, Liberty Mutual has moved some employees from the buildings into its new 22-story headquarters at 157 Berkeley St. that opened in 2013.

“We’re selling now because we fully occupy our new building,” spokesman John Cusolito said in an email. “The (St. James Avenue and Arlington Street) buildings are 96 percent occupied; however, owning and operating investment properties is not our primary business.”

0 Tesla to Open at 888 Boylston Street

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Tesla retail store in Back Bay

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Tesla will be moving in Boston to Boston Properties newest building, 888 Boylston Street. Tesla will among strong peers in the retail tech space with the following neighbors: Apple, Microsoft, Verizon & AT&T just in a 2 block corridor.

From the BBJ:

Although Tesla spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson wouldn’t disclose many details, she told me that the company (Nasdaq: TSLA) is relocating its store from within the Shops at Prudential Center to the more visible Boylston Street space by the end of the year.

0 Hancock Tower Remains Largely Unoccupied

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Hancock Tower in back bay

Credit: Boston Globe

New England’s tallest building has space for you. The tower has approximately 450,000 square feet available for lease.

From the Boston Globe:

About one-fourth of the space in 200 Clarendon — or what most of us still call the John Hancock Tower — is sitting vacant after leases expired and tenants such as John Hancock moved to new digs. Landlord Boston Properties Inc. acknowledged Wednesday that efforts to fill it have been going “a little bit slow.”

Rents at the top of the tower run $70 to $80 per square foot — among the priciest in town. Boston Properties has given no sign it plans to offer discounts to fill 450,000 vacant square feet. Still, the slowdown reflects a bit of a softening at the very top of Boston’s market. Real estate brokers say law firms, financiers, and others who seek trophy office space are pushing back against building owners who want to hike rents.

You can read the full Globe article, here.

0 South End Gateway Plotted above Back Bay Station

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rendering of Back bay real estate development

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Back Bay Station is poised to be far more than just a commuting station.  Boston Properties is proposing a 1.26 million square foot mixed use project.

From the BBJ:

Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) on Tuesday filed a project notification form with the Boston Redevelopment Authority that outlines its plans for three separate commercial and residential towers and a renovated and expanded Back Bay Station. The total project, if approved, would include 575,000 square feet of commercial office space, up to 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and 600 residential units.

Boston Properties has dubbed the latest development the “South End Gateway” project. The development will span four air-rights parcels — that is, development built on top of existing buildings — atop Back Bay Station, and an existing parking garage at 100 Clarendon St. The development is bounded by Dartmouth Street, Stuart Street, Trinity Place and Clarendon Street in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.

0 BRA Feature: Boston Office Market Update

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Google map of boston office space available

Available office space in Cambridge and Boston

As Boston marches through a gilded real estate cycle as insatiable growth spills out of Cambridge into submarkets not traditionally known as tech or life science destinations, we take a moment to pause and survey the evolving office landscape.  Given the strength of the regional economic growth, the compilation of markets including Boston, its inner core and Cambridge have seen the Class A office sector achieve a vacancy rate of 8.0% in the 4Q15 which is an improvement over the prior cycle’s low of 8.3% set in Q108.  The current success of the market is underpinned by positive absorption being posted in 18 of the last 19 quarters.  Not surprisingly, the same asset class has effectively reached the high water rent benchmark of $56.42 PSF set at the peak of the last cycle when the Q415 closed with Class A office rents averaging $56.39 PSF.

While the capital markets sector has been on fire given the health and view of Boston as one of the safest markets for investment, the fundamentals have pushed the development community to enter the discussion in a rather pronounced way.  In 2012, all of the 2.1M SF of product under construction was preleased.  In the 12 month period closing at the end of 2015, only 64% of the 3.2M SF of product under construction had commitments.  This telling stat indicates that developers and their capital partners are underwriting significantly more risk as spec office buildings begin to enter the market but with the belief that tight supply will drive rents through the asset’s absorption period.

Taking a deeper look at recent pure spec office deliveries, which include Samuels & Associates’ Van Ness project at 1325 Boylston Street (237,935 SF), FRIT’s delivery of 450 Artisan Way at Assembly Row (99,000 SF) and the first of Skanska’s office deliveries at 101 Seaport Avenue (440,000 SF), lease up velocity has been impressive.  Within nine months of delivery, Samuels is almost 72% leased with the recent news of UnitedHealth Group’s lease of 125,000 SF.  Skanska is 81% leased with PwC taking 232,938 SF as the anchor tenant and FRIT is100% leased since delivering in 2014.  With CoStar showing another 15 projects under construction totaling 2.32M SF with leasing commitments of 56.9%, it is clear that the spec development cycle is ratcheting up in Boston and its surrounding core submarkets.

Additionally there are several large sites that are toeing the line and potentially adding further office inventory to the market including DIVCO’s Northpoint site which has 2M SF in the pipeline, FRIT who sits on 1.6M SF of inventory at Assembly Row, HYM Group with 1M SF at the redevelopment of The Government Center Garage, Boston Properties Hub on Causeway with 700K SF and New Balance which has another 430K SF in Allston to name a few high profile projects.  The question on the mind of the real estate community is how long this upcycle will last and which of these projects will be able to survive an inevitable down turn.