Category Archives: Boston Office Space

0 Greenway Site: Normandy Hotel

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The last available parcel for the Greenway has now been awarded. The Big Dig project started in the 1991 and was completed in in 2006 and holds the distinction of the most expensive highway project in the U.S.

Parcel 9 Hanover Street

Credit: Boston Business Journal

“Five years after the state offered up one of the last remaining parcels along Boston’s Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway for sale, Normandy Real Estate Partners’ bid for a hotel has been selected….Normandy’s proposed development calls for mid-priced hotel and a first-floor food market to complement the adjacent Haymarket Pushcart Association produce market,” a Boston Business Journal report noted.

The complete article is available on the Boston Business Journal’s website: MassDOT chooses Normandy hotel

Related Real Estate Listings
Boston Office Space for Lease

0 400-foot Tower Considered at 40 Trinity Place in Back Bay

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What does $593.09 get you in Boston? Well that is the estimated price per square foot to construct the 379,370 square feet at 40 Trinity Place. According the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s web site, the Project includes the construction of a new, mixed-use structure at the corner of Trinity Place and Stuart Street. A portion of the Project will cantilever over the existing University Club parcel.

tower in back bay

Rendering of 40 Trinity Place Tower (Credit: Banker & Tradesman)

Banker & Tradesman:

“The development team, a trinity of Boston hotel operators Jeffrey and Gary Saunders and Jordan Warshaw, plans to build 115 condos and 227 hotel rooms in a 400-foot tower at 40 Trinity Place…The project is currently being reviewed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), which last night held its first public meeting about the $225-million tower. If approved, the building will contain three restaurants, with a lobby and banquet space on floors 18 and 19.”

0 Landscape Art

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public art outside of liberty mutual office building

Credit: Boston Business Journal

What is art and who should be the judge?  Well, one dictionary calls it,  “the creation of beautiful or thought-provoking works, e.g. in painting, music, or writing.” Using that simple definition, this one hits it out of the park. I’m a fan of something that provokes an opinion or starts a conversation. Perhaps it is better said that, “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.”

A BBJ article, with accompanying slideshow, reports on Liberty Mutual’s new  headquarters Back Bay, noting, it “features an indoor-outdoor sculpture made of waterjet cut stainless steel and aluminum, titled, Uplift. Uplift will act as a metaphorical bridge between the new Liberty Mutual headquarters and the surrounding streetscape, visually linking the Liberty Mutual and local communities together.”

The article and slideshow are available on the website of the Boston Business Journal.

0 One Post Office Square Restructuring: Partner Buys out Equity

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One PO Square in Boston

One Post Office Sq.

The transfer/sale of assets in the Financial District continues.  Time will tell how the transaction was structured, but what is clear Equity Office continue to divest New England Assets.

According to The Real Reporter, “equity Office has agreed to sell its stake at One Post Office Square to partner Morgan Stanley for a price said to exceed $500 million.”

To read the financials and details of the sale, jump over to The Real Reporter article.

0 157 Berkeley Street is 8th Largest Office Building in Back Bay

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Berkeley Street office building in Boston's Back Bay

Photo Credit: Boston Business Journal

Back Bay’s newest address unveiled in a big way; in fact, 157 Berkeley Street opened as the 8th largest office building in Back Bay.

Here’s the complete list:

1.      John Hancock Tower – 200 Clarendon Street – 1,755,398 RSF

2.      The Prudential – 800 Boylston Street – 1,207499 RSF

3.      111 Huntington Avenue – 859,053 RSF

4.      500 Boylston Street – 760,000 RSF

5.      200 Berkeley Street – 747,000

6.      131 Dartmouth Street – 609,000 RSF

7.      501 Boylston Street – 607,685

8.      157 Berkeley Street – 580,000

The newly completed 157 Berkeley St. will serve as the new Back Bay HQ of Liberty Mutual. The Boston Business Journal covered the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new 22-story office building in the Back Bay, and described the scope of the project:

“Liberty Mutual broke ground on the $300 million expansion project in 2010. The 590,000-square-foot building at 157 Berkeley St. building will accommodate more than 600 new, full-time Liberty Mutual Insurance employees at the expanded Boston offices.”

The complete BBJ article is available on the Boston Business Journal website.

0 Boston Office Vacancies Decreasing in Majority of Markets

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Office building in Government Center in BostonTenants that are in the market flock to value; over the last four quarters that value play has been the Financial District.  As those vacancies have been eroded, rents have pushed upward.  What will this mean tomorrow and beyond?  Those tenants that signed leases three plus years ago in the now tight and expensive Seaport Market will seek value options elsewhere if they feel that low $40’s rents for Class B is too much to burden in the Seaport.  

Markets that have benefited and that will continue to do so are Mid Town and North Station.

A post on the Boston Business Journal notes that Back Bay is lagging behind its neighboring submarkets:

“‘the only market where there has been an increase in vacancies is in the Back Bay…there continues to be uncertainly in the city’s most expensive office market with State Street Corp. downsizing considerably, [Debra Gould, a broker at Cushman & Wakefield] said. “They also have 400,000 square feet in Copley and it’s still not clear what will happen to that space … and obviously they are vacating the low-rise portion of the John Hancock Tower and there are price concerns … activity in the Back Bay will be slow.'”

You can read the full BBJ article, here.

Related Listings
Available Office Space in Boston Submarkets

0 Boston Startups Filling Downtown Crossing Office Space

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Office building at 99 Summer St. in BostonWhat does the Red, Green and Orange Line have in common?  The benefit of transporting the influx of employees to the newly leased up space in Downtown crossing to all the startups priced out of the Seaport and Cambridge.

W. Marc Bernsau of the Boston Business Journal reports, “the available office space in Downtown Crossing plunged by nearly 40 percent in two years as a wave of startups priced out of Kendall Square and the Seaport arrived in search of real estate bargains.”

Additional details on the startups moving into downtown crossing and its associated office space are available on the Boston Business Journal’s website.

Related Listings
Available Office Space in Downtown Crossing

0 Innovation District Attracts Another Corporate Giant

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Boston waterfront in the Innovation district at night

Photo Credit: InnovationDistrict.org

Rents continue to rise, but with that comes landlords willing to build new buildings.  Office rents have continued up quarter over quarter within the Seaport and Innovation District. However, according to an article in The Boston Globe, “accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is negotiating to occupy a 16-story building that would be built along Seaport Boulevard.”

The complete article is available to all readers on The Boston Globe website: PWHC to Lease Office Space in Innovation District

Related Commercial Real Estate Stats
Boston Office Space Pricing and Market Rates

0 Filene’s Groundbreaking Set

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Filenes in Downtown Crossing construction
Photo Credit: Boston Business Journal

The transformation of our city continues.  The former Filene’s site in downtown crossing is active with construction workers on the new tower complex.

A BBJ article reports, “nearly five years after construction ground to a halt at the former Filene’s site in Boston’s Downtown Crossing leaving a crater in the city’s shopping district, the new development team has set a groundbreaking for next month.”

The complete Boston Business Journal article is available here: Filenes Groundbreaking

0 Boston Office Vacancy Rate Dips Below 13% in 1st Quarter

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Office building at 1 Federal St. in Boston's financial district

1 Federal St., Boston

The vacancy rate for office space in Boston has dropped just below 13 percent. This according to an article posted on Banker & Tradesman late last week. B&T states, “the vacancy rate for the Greater Boston office and R&D market decreased from 17 percent to 16.9 percent during the quarter and select properties are beginning to recognize rent increases, according to a report from Colliers International focusing on the first quarter of this year.”

To view available office space for lease in the Greater Boston area, follow this link to our property listings.