0 Copley’s Iconic Hancock Tower Named Changed to 200 Clarendon St.

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Good bye to the JHT, John Hancock Tower, hello 200 Clarendon Street.

From B&T:

Landlord Boston Properties has formally renamed New England’s tallest building, the 60-story John Hancock Tower, now that Manulife’s John Hancock Insurance division no longer occupies any office space in the mirrored glass rhomboid.

“We’re not allowed to call it (the Hancock Tower) anymore as the Hancock Manulife lease expired at the end of the second quarter,” Boston Properties President Douglas Linde said during a conference call today.

Boston Properties acquired the property in 2010 for $930 million. Leases by John Hancock and State Street Corp. totaling 414,000 square feet recently expired, increasing vacancies in the 1.7-million-square-foot tower. Boston Properties is repositioning the former State Street offices as tech space under the “120 St. James” name, reflecting a new entrance on that avenue.

0 Copley Place Upgrades Planned

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bisnow

Copley Square is going to see some major upgrade to Copley Place. Simon Properties in planning major interior and exterior upgrades with completion in the Summer of ’16.

Bisnow is reporting that, “come September, Copley Place begins both interior and exterior upgrades. Simon Malls president David Contis says the high-end shopping destination will have a more modern and cohesive look. Simon expects to add a number of luxury retailers. Copley Place will remain open during renovations, with the majority of the project expected to be completed by summer 2016.”

You can read the original post, here.

0 Upgrades Scheduled for Newly Privatized MBTA Station in Back Bay

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Back Bay Station is the 3rd Boston transit hub that has been turned over to the private sector and has some significant deferred maintenance. Boston Properties is doing its part to help bridge the gap.

Credit: Boston Globe

From The Boston Globe:

Just months after signing a $32 million deal to have the real estate giant Boston Properties upgrade the station, the Department of Transportation has agreed to cover six-figure shortfalls in rent from vendors and pay potentially big sums for structural repairs.

The agreement, signed in the closing weeks of the administration of Deval Patrick, calls for Boston Properties to manage the building and renovate the station — installing a new glass facade and windows, updating turnstiles and waiting areas, and bringing in new retail tenants.

In exchange, the company gets the right to build a tower above the station, which opened in 1987.

0 John Hancock II Planned for 380 Stuart Street in Back Bay

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Wil Catlin

rendering of new john hancock_tower at 380 Stuart Street

Credit: Boston Business Journal

The John Hancock tower Version 2.0 is being planned for 380 Stuart Street in Back Bay.

An article on the BBJ outlines the “six things you need to know about the tower proposal;” here are a few excerpts from the Boston Business Journal’s report:

What’s being proposed: A 625,000-square-foot, 26-story tower with street-level retail and cafe space and 175 underground parking spaces. The tower would top out at 380 feet.
Where would the tower go: 380 Stuart St., which is home to a nine-story, 140,000-square-foot office that dates back to 1924 and houses John Hancock Financial Services employees.
Who would go in: John Hancock envisions “owner-occupancy and commercial office” tenants using the space.
How would it be financed: John Hancock, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian financial services firm Manulife Financial (NYSE: MFC), would finance the building in its entirety.
Who’s leading development:Colliers International is the project manager representing John Hancock. The architects are Chicago-based Skidmore Owings Merrill and Boston-based CBT Architects.
What’s the project timeline: If approved, construction would start in late 2016, and the tower would be complete in early 2019.

0 Boston’s John Hancock Tower Nears 47

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

Boston is under a major construction boom which is evident as you look across our skyline. The John Hancock tower was a major milestone in our city when the project broke ground in August of 1968.

From the Boston Globe:

The groundbreaking ceremony for New England’s tallest building, the John Hancock Tower, was on Aug. 21, 1968. The 60-story minimalist structure was constructed with huge panes of reflective glass that proved to be a problem in the 1970s. Many panes of glass crashed to the ground with high wind speeds, causing street closures and huge safety concerns. After pane replacement and structural fixes that stabilized the tower, the actual cost of the construction nearly doubled the projected budget.

0 Boston High-Rise Office Space: Rents Exceeding $90 per sq. foot

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bizjournals.com

Boston office rents continue to grow as tenants continue to migrate to downtown Boston high-rise office buildings.

From the Boston Business Journal:

Low-rise and Class B offices are now commanding rents in the mid- to upper $40s range, while high-rise rents are reaching well past the $90 per square foot range, according to second-quarter research from commercial real estate services firm DTZ. Class B office rents are up 21 percent from last year in the Financial District, 12 percent in the North Station region and 20 percent in South Station, DTZ said.

“It’s also worth noting that nearly 25 percent of Boston’s office inventory has traded hands in the past 12 months,” the research report said.
Meanwhile, Cambridge also maintained its post as the strongest real estate market in Massachusetts, with $2.2 billion in sales activity. That’s more than half of the overall $4 billion in total sales volume so far this year, according to recently released second-quarter research from JLL..Direct average rents rose more than 5 percent year-over-year in nine out of 12 of Boston’s submarkets, topping out with 16.3 percent growth in East Cambridge.

0 Kendall Square to Copley Move for Notable Cambridge Firms

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Wayfair

The pilgrimage to Boston continues as Cambridge tightens; InsightSquared and Architectural Resources will soon call Back Bay home.

The BBJ notes, “Business analytics firm InsightSquared, which just last spring moved into expanded office spaces at 160 Second St., this September will move to a 45,000-square-foot office at 4 Copley Place. The office spans two floors and is almost triple the size of Insight Squared’s 16,000-square-foot Kendall Square location…The expansion is driven by InsightSquared’s growing customer count and revenue, a company representative said. The office will also accommodate the firm’s growing employee base, which has doubled to more than 150 in the past year.”

You can real the full Boston Business Journal report on its website, here.

Relevant Available Real Estate in Boston and Cambridge
Kendall Square Office Space
Back Bay office space for lease

0 New Boston Skyscrapers will Make — or Brake — the Skyline

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Copley square office buildings in Boston

Credit: Boston Globe

The greater Boston audience has an opinion about just about anything, including our skyline. This poses a challenge to Boston’s strongest developers and architects to reshape our city into something elegant, energizing, and functional.

From the Boston Globe:

No matter how elegantly they may be paved or planted, urban plazas are boring, windy, and little used, especially in weather like ours. The Prudential, back before its Arctic plazas were filled in with shopping arcades, was a good example. The Federal Reserve Bank, next to South Station, is another. It’s a handsome, eloquent Diva tower behind a plaza that has the charm of a recently abandoned battlefield.

As far as the public is concerned, cities aren’t made of buildings and plazas, anyway. Cities are made of streets and parks. From the point of view of urban design, the buildings are there to shape those public spaces and feed them with energy.

0 Boston Park Plaza Hotel Gets Modernized

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Park Plaza Hotel

A Back Bay building at 50 Park Plaza has just gone through a $100M upgrade. The 90 year old Boston Park Plaza Hotel has been brought up to today’s standards.

Patch.com lists out the on-site upgrades, including the following:

•   Replacement of the hotel’s roof, exterior facade and sidewalk surrounds
•   Creation of 5,500 square feet of prime retail space
•   Installation of a state-of-the-art HVAC system
•   The addition of STRIP by Strega, an all-new 5,700 square foot high-energy steakhouse concept by Boston-based restaurateur Nick Varano
•   The addition of Off The Common, the Boston Park Plaza’s new restaurant and lounge
•   Additional guest services include complimentary use of the brand new David Barton Gym fitness center, FedEx Office Print & Ship Center, and 50,480 square-feet of exceptional meeting space