0 Boston Commercial Real Estate Retrospective

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Boston office buildings line the skyline

Credit: The Boston Globe

The city of Boston that is home to a wide variety of college, universities, professional sports team, hospitals and companies is changing. We have created the Back Bay, built office tower and now adding more buildings to our skyline. No longer are the tower views home to companies, but residences.

The Boston Globe has put together a retrospective, “A new age for an old town”, tracing the Hub’s commercial transformation. The article notes the following:

Today, Boston Properties, one of the city’s most prolific builders, is developing a 17-story office building on the final parcel within the Prudential complex. Meanwhile, the area around the Pru is exploding with new projects and proposals for hotels and towering residential buildings.

“It’s absolutely extraordinary,” said Bob Richards, a partner at Transwestern RBJ. “What’s driving it is the top-tier labor talent in industries like technology and life sciences. The young people who work for those companies want to live in an urban environment.”

Not coincidentally, the city’s population is rising more rapidly than it has in decades. The total head count rose by nearly 30,000 people, to about 646,000, between 2010 and 2013, according to the US Census Bureau. That’s more population growth in three years than Boston experienced in the 1980s and ’90s combined.

0 Notable Tenants Looking for Office Space in Boston

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Wil Catlin

What large office tenants in the city of Boston are looking for a new home? Biznow offers its take on the top tenants looking for space in 2015 in the Boston office market. Included in their list are the following:

Office space in post office square Boston

Credit: Bisnow

Putnam Investments (One Post Office Square)
BNY Mellon (One Boston Place)
Wells Fargo (Two International Place)
Digitas (33 Arch St.)
Houghton Mifflin (222 Berkeley /500 Boylston St in Back Bay)
PwC (125 High St.)
Goodwin Procter (53 State St.)
State Street (Hancock Tower)

0 Direction of Boston City Hall Plaza Transformation Open to Public

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Boston’s City Hall has long been a debate about what it should have been or what it could be. Would you prefer to see it moved or rebuilt in its current spot?

From the Boston Business Journal:

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh has released, the 200,000-square-foot open-air plaza adjacent to City Hall in the heart of downtown Boston…The RFI seeks to gauge interest and information about the redesign of the plaza, which sees up to 30,000 people each day.

Interested parties can submit ideas on Twitter to @Marty_Walsh or @NotifyBoston using the hashtag #CityHallPlaza.

0 Boston Cares Relocating to 90 Canal St.

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Wil Catlin

90 Canal Street

Bonny Doorakian, Robert LeClair and Wil Catlin of Boston Realty Advisors represented the landlord, 90 Canal Street, LLC in the leasing of 3,019 square feet to Boston Cares.

From Banker&Tradesman:

“Boston Cares, New England’s largest volunteer nonprofit agency, has signed a lease for 5,043 square feet at 90 Canal St. and will relocate its headquarters in April from 190 High St. in Boston’s Financial District…The long-term lease represents a 3,019-square-foot expansion for the organization, which mobilizes more than 25,000 volunteers in support of 165 nonprofit, school and public programs.”

0 75-105 Federal St. in Boston’s Financial District Under Agreement

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Financial District office space federal street

Credit: Banker&Tradesman

Another trade is scheduled to take place, 75 – 105 Federal Street in Boston’s Financial District.

According to Banker&Tradesman, “the L-shaped office tower overlooks the city-owned Winthrop Square garage, which could be redeveloped into a massive mixed-use project…Developer Steve Belkin has floated plans for a 740-foot tower on the garage site at 115 Federal St. The project would cost approximately $900 million and contain offices, a 300-room hotel, retail space and possibly condos on the upper floors.”

You can read the full article on B&T, here.

0 Office Tower Planned at 121 Seaport

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Wil Catlin

300 A Street office space in Boston Seaport

One of the next major projects to come out of the ground in the Seaport looks to be from developer Skanska. As office rents continue upward, what tenant will make the migration from E. Cambridge to the Seaport?

From Banker & Tradesman:

“As it finalizes cost estimates for 121 Seaport in Boston, developer Skanska USA is positioning the 425,000-square-foot tower as a rival to Cambridge’s Kendall Square among tech companies looking for build-to-suit sites….Shawn Hurley, executive vice president of Skanska USA Development, said 121 Seaport has a shot at attracting the neighborhood’s next big lab tenant. Vertex Pharmaceuticals was the first major life science company to commit to the South Boston waterfront, moving from Cambridge to a 1.1-million-square-foot headquarters on the Fan Pier in January 2014.”

Related Property Listings
Available office space in Boston Seaport

0 Boston Office Market Continues to Soar

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Nerej.com

Rents are on the move, upward and don’t see any signs of letting up. Class B product in the Downtown Crossing (DTX) area of the city have seen increases from the high $20’s a couple of years ago to the low $40’s. Future predictions expect the 2016 levels to surpass the 2000 and 2007 markets peaks.

Nerej.com notes, “the city of Boston office market is absolutely exploding. 1.72 million s/f of office space was absorbed in 2014, 35% more than in 2013, and 50% more than in 2012. What statistics do not show is that Boston as a city has $110 billion in total assessed value for all its properties; $4 billion in new construction breaking ground, 4,500 current job openings and 44 tech IPO’s in the pipeline. 50% of total absorption in 2014 was urban migration from the suburbs. As of the start of 2015, there are 222,000 s/f of tenants in the market for downtown space alone.

You can read more about the Boston Office Market explosion on Nerej.com.

0 New Boston Design Center Showrooms Open

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: B&T

After completing $13 million in renovations, Jamestown is proud to announce some new tenants in the Design Center.

From Banker & Tradesman:

Jamestown, a real estate investment and development company headquartered in Atlanta, leases the 550,000-square-foot complex in the 1.4-million-square-foot Innovation and Design Building complex from the city of Boston. The complex contains 550,000 square feet dedicated to luxury home furnishing showrooms along with office and innovation space...Jamestown recently completed more than $13 million in interior renovations at the center, the first major physical updates since it opened in 1985. The project included renovations of the lobby, common spaces and seminar room and new finishes and furniture from design center tenants.

0 Boston Snow-clearing Progress Available Online

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Wil Catlin

The calendar has turned to February and we are in the midpoint of winter. When you consider a location for your new office you might want to check and make sure the address gets good service by the City of Boston Department of Public Works. You can also check out a new site, Snow Stats, that allows the city to post snow clearing activity. The site is by no means a snow-cam mounted on the front of the truck looking at what needs to be plowed, and a camera on the back looking at the results, but it is a start.

Credit: snowstats.boston.gov

According to the Boston Business Journal, “Snow Stats, officially launched by the city on Monday during the second big snowstorm in as many weeks, allows residents to monitor Boston’s snow operations including an overview of the season showing the total miles and hours plowed, salt used, and total snowfall. The site also shows what phase the snow operation is in, and what tasks are being completed in each snow response phase.”

You can read more on the site on the BBJ.

0 Office Space Super Bowl

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: rejournals.com

Office Vacancy and the Super bowl, the city with the highest vacancy rate wins.

REjournals compared Boston and Seattle’s office markets, citing a correlation between office vacancies and Super Bowl victories: “according to JLL, NFL teams based in cities with higher office vacancy rates have won the Lombardi Trophy 60 percent of the time in the past 15 seasons, including seven straight years from 2000 through 2006…This year, Boston’s office vacancy rate is 14.7 percent while Seattle’s is 10.7 percent. Based on this statistic, the odds favor New England.”

You can read the complete analysis on rejournals.com.