0 LEGO Education Opens HQ in Back Bay

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: B

Lego is amazing and I used it as a kid and my kids now use it. It has evolved in so many ways and I never figured I would work a few blocks for their office which is now located at 501 Boylston Street in Boston Back Bay.

LEGO Fun Facts:

There are about 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world’s 6 billion inhabitants. Children around the world spend 5 billion hours a year playing with LEGO bricks.
LEGO bricks are available in 53 different colors.
19 billion LEGO elements are produced every year. 2.16 million LEGO elements are molded every hour, or 36,000 per minute.
More than 400 billion LEGO bricks have been produced since 1949.
Two eight-stud LEGO bricks of the same color can be combined in 24 different ways. Three eight-stud bricks can be combined in 1,060 ways. There are more than 915 million combinations possible for six 2 x 4 LEGO bricks of the same color.
7 LEGO sets are sold by retailers every second around the world.
The LEGO bricks sold in one year would circle the world 5 times.
40 billion LEGO bricks stacked on top of one another would connect the earth with the moon.

0 Back Bay Station Eyed for 1.4M Sq Ft. Mixed-use Development

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Wil Catlin

165 Dartmouth Street retail space in Boston

Credit: Zillow

Back Bay Station is poised to become a destination location according to proposed plans by Boston Properties.

A recent BBJ article indicates the 1.4-million-square-foot mixed-use development is planned just above Back Bay Station and an adjacent parking garage at 165 Dartmouth St.

From the Boston Business Journal report:

“Boston Properties will invest significant capital into the 1970s-era garage and the station, resulting in a transit-oriented development which will integrate the project, the garage and the station into the Back Bay and surrounding neighborhoods.”

You can read more on the Boston Business Journal.

0 Dartmouth Street Office Building in Back Bay Nets $849 per Sq. Ft.

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

$849 per square foot was the trade price of 131 Dartmouth Street in Boston’s Back Bay.

According to the BBJ, “Boston-based real estate investment firm TA Associates Realty is set to acquire 131 Dartmouth St. in Boston’s Back Bay for $315 million…[offering] a long building with large floor plates spanning 371,000 square feet, with a below-grade parking deck at an enviable 2-per-1,000 square feet parking spot ratio. The 12-story building is adjacent to Back Bay Station and located across Dartmouth Street from retail center Copley Place.”

There are 11 Class A office buildings in Boston with floorplates greater than 50,000 square feet, 131 Dartmouth is the 8th largest with 55,363 square foot floorplates:

Building Address	Submarket Name	City	Year Built	Number Of Stories	Rentable Building Area	Typical Floor Size
200 Seaport Blvd	Seaport	Boston	1920	3	804,000.00	268,000.00
401 Park Dr	Brighton/Allston/Fenway	Boston	1928	14	950,000.00	98,573.00
480 William F McClellan Hwy	Charlestown/East Boston	Boston	2006	4	140,000.00	85,091.00
24 New Chardon St	North Station/Beacon Hill	Boston	2000	4	295,318.00	73,829.00
245 Summer St	Financial District	Boston	1974	14	891,814.00	63,701.00
501 Boylston St	Back Bay	Boston	1940	10	607,685.00	60,768.00
197 Clarendon St	Back Bay	Boston	1922	8	448,796.00	56,000.00
131 Dartmouth St	Back Bay	Boston	2002	11	371,016.00	55,363.00
1 Boston Medical Center Pl	South End	Boston	1980		228,257.00	55,000.00
1622-1636 Tremont St	Roxbury/Dorchester	Boston	2003	4	193,000.00	53,404.00
222 Berkeley St	Back Bay	Boston	1991	22	524,195.00	51,655.00

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.

0 Tesla Opens first Boston Store, Mulls Area Expansion

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Boylston Street in Boston’s Back Bay continues to one of the nation’s top technology roads for retailers. Tesla @800 Boylston will open shorty and will accompany other tech retailers like:

Apple @ 815 Boylston
Verizon @ 699 Boylston
AT&T @ 745 Boylston
Microsoft @ 800 Boylston

Some history of Boylston Street from Wikipedia:

Boylston Street is the name of a major east-west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston street was known as Frog Lane in the early 18th century and was later known as Common Street. It was later again renamed for Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747–1828),[1][2][3][4] a man of wealth and refinement, an officer of the Crown, and philanthropist. Boylston, who was a descendent of Zabdiel Boylston,[5] was born in Boston and spent much of his life in it. The Boylston Market was named after him as was the town of Boylston, Massachusetts.[3]

According to the BBJ, “A second new store will open in the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham in December…Tesla spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson said the company also has an interest in opening a store in Chestnut Hill, but has no plans right now.”

You can read more on Tesla’s planned Boston expansion on the Boston Business Journal.

0 Pedestrian Connector Omitted from final John Hancock Tower Proposal

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Wil Catlin

rendering of new John Hancock tower in Boston back bay

Credit: Boston Business Journal

The folks on the design teams of John Hancock’s new 26 story towers decide not to include the pedestrian bridge in their final plans. Do you feel the design for the top of the tower is too forward?

From the BBJ:

When John Hancock notified the city of its intent to build a 26-story tower at 380 Stuart St., a pedestrian connector linking the new tower and John Hancock’s existing office complex at 200 Berkeley St. was up for consideration…But on Tuesday evening, the project’s design team discussed the shaping of the tower and tapering it down to the ground, creating pedestrian walkways between Stuart and Stanhope streets as well as creating a rooftop terrace that could be rented for private functions. The pedestrian connector was not included in any of the design discussion…When asked about its whereabouts, the design team said: “The bridge is gone.”

0 Tesla Store Coming to Boylston Street in Boston

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Boylston Street continues its technology leadership role with anchor stores from Apple, Verizon, AT&T, Microsoft to its newest Tesla Motors. Tesla will be one of the newest addition to the Shops at Prudential in Boston’s Back Bay. The Prudential complex consists of:

800 Boylston Street
101 Huntington Avenue
111 Huntington Avenue
888 Boylston Street

A BBJ article, covering the announcement of a Back Bay Tesla store, notes the following:

“We are excited to have a larger presence in Boston,” said a Tesla spokeswoman in an email, adding the store would host an “opening event” in the next several weeks. She declined to discuss any other other details of the retail store. Tesla already has two stores in Massachusetts, one in Natick and one in Dedham. The company also has a service center in Watertown. A company spokesman recently told the Boston Herald that it has plans to open more stores in Massachusetts over the next two years.

0 Back Bay Station Air Quality Fixes Prove Costly

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Wil Catlin

The cost of clean air is very expensive, but totally worth it.

According to an article on Banker & Tradesman, “The repairs could climb from $800,000 to $6 million…The MBTA commissioned Westwood-based Hatch Mott MacDonald to study the decades-old ventilation system as part of a $32-million station renovation project being led by developer Boston Properties. For years, diesel exhaust from commuter rail locomotives has lingered on station platforms and filtered up to the concourse…MassDOT spokesman Jason Johnson said the MBTA will adopt the report’s recommendation of creating a modeling assessment that would include detailed engineering. The model is expected to be completed by the end of winter.”

You can read additional information on the air quality assessment of Back Bay station on the B&T website.

Related Office Space Listings
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0 Proposed Back Bay Tower on Stuart Street Revealed

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Please have a look at Back Bay’s newest proposed tower on Stuart Street. This will be 625,000 RSF on 26 floors.

Credit: BBJ

From the Boston Business Journal:

Boston-based insurance giant John Hancock has submitted its expanded project notification form to city officials, and with the document comes a broader look at the firm’s proposed 26-story Back Bay tower…John Hancock’s proposed 388-foot tower at 380 Stuart St. is slated to span 625,000 square feet, of which 10,000 square feet would be ground-floor retail. The tower would also include a four-level, 175-space underground parking deck.

0 Copley Place Renovations Begin this Month

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

More construction is headed to Back Bay’s Copley Square with Simon’s upgrade of their Copley Place.

The BBJ notes, “the renovations will include physical upgrades such as new flooring and ceiling treatments, upgraded escalators and glass handrails and an upscale food court component.” Expected to wrap up next summer, “the interior retail work is a part of Simon’s $500 million, 1.96 million-square-foot expansion of Copley Place, which includes a new 52-story, 542-unit residential tower that’s currently under construction. The Boston Redevelopment Authority in May approved an updated affordable housing agreement for the project, as well as a redrawn boundary agreement that now prevents facades from encroaching outside the project site.”

You can read the full article on the Boston Business Journal website, here.