Photo Credit: Manulife Financial Corp. via Boston Business Journal
We all have seen the John Hancock Weather Beacon, but how many of us know what it means?
The Boston Business Journal cites a poem that can help you decode it:
Steady blue, clear view.
Flashing blue, clouds due.
Steady read, rain ahead.
Flashing red, snow instead. (or in summer, Red Sox game is cancelled)
The Financial District continues to attract large tenants due to its value pricing compared to neighboring submarkets. As of November 8th, 2012, only 21 buildings in the Financial District have 50,000 square feet or more of contiguous space available.
Apparel company, Puma, Inc., recently signed a 60,000-square-foot lease at One Congress Street, adding another established brand to Boston’s Financial District.
Photo Credit: The Boston Business Journal
185 Dartmouth Street will be a welcome addition to the Back Bay office market. This building, formerly referred to as 441 Stuart Street, has been dark for years and with Synergy’s reinvestment into the asset, the Class B office tenant will now have more choices.
A report in the Boston Business Journal notes, “the 11-story facility houses a 40,000-square-foot health club and more than 12,000 square feet of ground floor retail. Synergy bought the building with gutted space on floors four through 11. The Boston-based company is restoring the 13,000-square-foot floor plates on each of those floors and have completed one floor as a showroom for brokers and potential new tenants.”
Follow the link to read the BBJ’s report on Synergy Investments’ renovation of 441 Stuart Street.
Photo Credit: Boston.com
There are changes in store for the Back Bay skyline. The project will include a 220-room hotel with meeting spaces, 142 residences, parking, and several restaurants.
“A rendering of the proposed building, to be called 40 Trinity Place, shows a slender glass tower with an angular top. The developers still need approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority, but said they hope to start construction by next fall.”
More information on the proposed hotel is available on Boston.com’s Business Updates.
Alternatively, click through for a printable overview of the offices at John Hancock Tower.
Boston continues to be a leader in the office recovery through absorption and new construction.
CoStar Group reported this week that “demand for office space in the U.S. held steady in the third quarter as leasing activity and absorption of available office space continued to pick up momentum following a lackluster start at the beginning of 2012.”
The complete article is available on the CoStar Group’s website.
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The Seaport section of Boston is experiencing explosive growth in office space and residential developments, but along with that come a neighborhood. The influx of new restaurants with award winning chefs creates a new destination location for good eats.
The Boston Globe forecasts the area’s continued transformation, “in the next few months, another wave of restaurants and entertainment options is scheduled to open in the Seaport District, seemingly racing the developers who are rushing to fill in the area’s empty lots with office buildings and residential towers.”
To read the complete Globe report, hope over to their coverage of the Seaport’s ‘restaurant invasion’.
For more information on the Seaport’s commercial real estate environment and related property listings, view our Boston Seaport submarket page.
Boston’s commercial real estate market will see office lease rates soar in 2013, and is one of 10 cities expected to experience significant growth. The growth is attributed to areas of high-technology and biomedical research & development, which attract highly-educated workforces.
Thomas Grillo, Real Estate Editor at the Boston Business Journal, noted that “Boston made the list of Top 10 U.S. cities where the commercial real estate recovery will soar next year with gains in leasing, rents and pricing across all property sectors”, citing an Urban Land Institute’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate Forecast.
More information on the Urban Land Institute’s forecast is available on the Boston Business Journal’s Real Estate section.
The Class B market in the Financial District continues to see trades. 11 Beacon Street is the next one to hit the market after being acquired in 2010.
According to the Boston Business Journal, “the 92-year-old building was purchased by Divco in 2010 for $16 million and the firms said it has spent $4.9 million in capital improvements. The city has assessed the 12-story building at $20 million.”
For more information on the sale of 11 Beacon Street, jump over to the Boston Business Journal’s website.
Where is the best value for office space in Boston? The Financial District, rents are 20 percent below Back Bay with vacancy rates at 14.9 percent.
Banker & Tradesman reports that a “six-quarter streak of positive absorption in Boston’s Financial District has increased occupancy there by 848,000 square feet…Back Bay rental rates are now at a record 20 percent premium over asking rates in the Financial District.”
Further analysis is available at Banker & Tradesman.
The Office Market recovery in Boston and Cambridge is here. The real question is for how much longer will favorable opportunities exist for tenants.
The Boston Business Journal reports that “a survey of 44 office buildings by Boston brokerage McCall & Almy found that of the 26.5 million square feet of space studied in the Financial District, 16.6 percent was available in September, down from 20.3 percent at the close of last year.”
More information on the Financial District occupancy rates is available on the BBJ’s web site.
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