0 Google Fiber is Headed to Boston

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Looking for hi-speed internet access in Boston and hoping to compare two providers? Well you can now Google it, and then hire Google.

According to Bizjournals.com:

Google Fiber agreed to acquire a company called Webpass, an internet service provider based in San Francisco that already serves Boston, Miami and Chicago, among other cities. ..Webpass, which offers residential internet service for $60 per month, says it has tens of thousands of customers across five major markets in the U.S. Google’s service is $70 per month, according to its website.

Google Fiber, a subsidiary of parent company Alphabet offers internet speeds of up to 1,000 megabits per second. It already serves cities such as Kansas City, Nashville, Atlanta and Austin. By comparison, Verizon FiOs offers internet speeds of up to 500 megabits per second.

0 Is this the end for Boston’s Famed Citgo sign?

Posted on July 2, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

Boston’s iconic Citgo sign might go dark after the building is sold.

From the Globe’s website:

As several prominent development companies angle to buy the nine-building package [Boston University is selling in Kenmore Square], they are weighing a delicate question: how to redevelop them — as any new owner would be likely to do — without blocking or moving the sign so it is no longer so visible from so many places around the city.

Moving the sign and replacing 660 Beacon with a taller building wouldn’t be difficult, said Arthur Krim, a faculty member at Boston Architectural College and the sign’s unofficial historian. But move it much, and the views would be altered forever.

“Sightlines would be skewed,” Krim said. “Anything above 15 stories and it’d be hard to see up there at all.”

0 ‘First’ Boston Office Skyscraper gets New Owner

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Wikipedia

The Ames Building at 1 Court Street will be getting a new owner. The building is known as the Boston’s “first skyscraper”.

From Wikipedia:

The Ames Building is a skyscraper located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes ranked as the tallest building in Boston from its completion in 1893 until 1915, when the Custom House Tower was built. However, the building was never the tallest structure in Boston. The steeple of the Church of the Covenant, completed in 1867, was much taller than the Ames Building. Nevertheless, it is considered to be Boston’s first skyscraper.

Located at 1 Court Street and Washington Mall in downtown Boston, the Ames Building was designed by the architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge inRichardsonian Romanesque and paid for by Frederick L. Ames. It is the second tallest masonry load bearing-wall structure in the world, exceeded only by the Monadnock Building in Chicago, completed that same year.[2] It is thirteen stories high with a three-story granite base and sandstone and brick. The sandstone is from the Berea formation in Ohio and was supplied by Cleveland Quarries Company. Construction was completed in 1889, but interior work was not completed for occupancy until 1893. It became the corporate headquarters for the Ames families’ agricultural tool company.[3]

The Ames Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 26, 1974.

0 Boston Office Sale Sets High-Water Mark for the Year at $1.3B

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Wil Catlin

500 Boylston Street office building back bay

Credit: BBJ

The office and retail real estate border by: Boylston Street, Berkeley Street, St. James Avenue and Clarendon Street has traded hands from Equity Office to Oxford Properties for $1.29 billion.

The addresses include 500 Boylston Street and 222 Berkeley Street in Boston’s Back Bay.

“The deal crosses the $1,000 per square foot barrier, with the 706,862-square-foot, 25-story 500 Boylston St. selling for $1,068 per square foot, and the 519,608-square-foot, 22-story complex at 222 Berkeley St. selling for $1,029 per square foot. Just a handful of deals have crossed that mark in Greater Boston’s sales history,” according to a BBJ article.

You can read more on the sizable transaction on the Boston Business Journal’s website, Bizjournals.com.

0 Boston Class A Office Space with at Least 50k Sq. Ft. Draws Interest

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Skanska

According to CoStar there are 20 Class A properties that can offer 50,000 square feet or more of contiguous office space in the Seaport, Back Bay or the Financial District (see full chart below).

From the Boston Globe:

Despite Boston’s development boom, big chunks of office space are scarce right now. As of Oct. 1, there were 17 tenants looking for 50,000 square feet or more of top-end office space in downtown Boston, according to real estate firm JLL, and just 11 blocks big enough to house them. That means buildings with room are drawing interest.

Three would-be tenants have proposed leasing all 180,000 square feet that Boston Properties has at 120 St. James, in the base of the old John Hancock Tower, president Douglas Linde told analysts recently. The space PWC left behind for the Seaport, at 125 High Street, also went quick. And Goodwin Procter’s soon-to-be-former home at 53 State has seen strong interest.

One addition to that list may soon be Skanska, offering “brand-new space with all the bells and whistles.”

Building Address	Building Name	Submarket Name	Max Building Contiguous Space
200 Berkeley St	Berkeley Bldg	Back Bay	50,266
501 Boylston St		Back Bay	62,644
200 Clarendon St	John Hancock Tower	Back Bay	121,989
2 Copley Pl	Tower 2	Back Bay	122,606
101 Huntington Ave		Back Bay	60,858
111 Huntington Ave		Back Bay	70,191
31 Saint James Ave	Park Square Bldg	Back Bay	91,000
1 Beacon St	One Beacon	Financial District	105,786
1 Federal St	One Federal Street	Financial District	55,038
101 Federal St	101 Federal Street	Financial District	69,873
160 Federal St	Landmark	Financial District	54,221
One Financial Ctr	One Financial Center	Financial District	59,106
125 High St	High Street Tower	Financial District	78,034
50 Milk St		Financial District	39,644
50 Post Office Sq		Financial District	117,200
53 State St	Exchange Place	Financial District	382,332
60 State St		Financial District	57,897
100 Summer St		Financial District	115,402
40 Water St	Congress Square	Financial District	363,834
101 Seaport Blvd	PricewaterhouseCoopers	Seaport	77,646

0 Boston Software Startup picks Fenway over Kendall Square

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Office space at 1330 Boylston Street in Boston

The office market for growing companies appears to be expanding beyond traditional office markets such as Back Bay, Seaport and Financial District to Fenway. This is due to Samuels & Associates offering what companies want and need; cool creative space without a long term lease. New formed and funded companies are in most cases unable to make long term lease commitments, Hatch Fenway is designed to bright that gap between shared space and direct space.

One example of this is documented on the BBJ:

Software startup Appcues has moved from Cambridge to a 2,100-square-foot office at Hatch Fenway, the startup space created by real estate developerSamuels & Associates this summer…the company started out in WeWork co-working space before moving to 300 square feet at 25 First St. in Cambridge. Late last year, the company raised $1.2 million in seed funding from Atlas Ventures and other investors…The company needed space to grow and had looked all over: Downtown Crossing, the Leather District, Kendall Square, Lechmere, Cambridge, the Seaport’s Innovation District. But Kendall Square has become “so office park-y,” Kim said.

“We like getting out of the office and going to interesting places,” he said. “The Fenway just has such a diverse array of restaurants, a movie theater right downstairs. Everything is convenient.”

Related Office Listings
Fenway Office Space for Lease

0 Available Office Space in Boston: It Still Exists!

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Wil Catlin

185 Dartmouth Street Office Building

Is your company on the hunt for new office space in Boston? The vacancy rate overall in Boston in just above 13% which means there are many desirable options.

The BBJ notes, “the Boston office-building real estate market is on an uptrend, with rates rising more than 5 percent in the last year in nine out of the 12 of the city’s submarkets, and vacancy rates nearing a eight-year low in the second quarter of 2015, according to a JLL’s Office Insight report…But, by the same token, a 13.1 percent vacancy rate in the Boston market means there are is still a lot of prime commercial office space available to be leased.”

You can view the BBJ’s list of commercial buildings with the most available office space, here.

Office Listings
Available Office Space in Boston

0 Boston is Accepting Proposals for City Halls Plaza

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Herald

Our mayors wants your ideas for Boston’s City Hall Plaza? What is your vision for the 200,000 square feet of space?

From B&T:

“We’re looking for a partner with an innovative plan to unlock this potential and transform the plaza into a must-see destination for residents and visitors alike. Together, we want to reimagine the plaza as a thriving, healthy and innovative civic space,” [said Mayor Walsh].

The ideal team will propose a detailed and feasible implementation plan…the partner will be able to add new elements and temporary amenities over a three-year contract period. They will also help organize events and activities and contribute to a campus plan.

0 What Does the Commute Cost Boston Drivers?

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Do you pick you job based on where you live or do you pick where you live based on your job?

According to estimates from the Boston Globe, “Boston-area drivers spent an extra 64 hours in the car due to traffic in 2014, a new study found. During that time, they burned an extra 30 gallons of gas and also lost time they could have been productive. It added up to an estimated $1,388 lost per driver…Boston ranked as the sixth worst major metropolitan area for traffic congestion.”

Credit: Boston Globe

You can read the full article on the Boston Globe.

0 Free Office Space in Boston for Select Irish Start-ups

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Silicon Republic

Irish entrepreneurship is alive and strong within greater Boston. Launch Space is the launch pad for Irish based companies looking to expand into the U.S. marketplace.

From Silicon Republic:

“The Netwatch Launch Space is about creating a connected community of Irish companies who can support each other as they seek to build their business here,” said David Walsh, CEO of Netwatch…Netwatch made the move in 2011 and we can give other Irish companies a real insight into our experience of setting up a base in the US, introduce them to our own network of clients and contacts, including legal, financial and marketing advisers to ease their entry into what is a huge and varied market.”