0 Developers Move to Luxury to Offset Escalating Labor Cost

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Construction laborers work on an office building in Boston

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Due to the great recession we have fewer skilled labor working in the construction trade industry and as a result that cost has increased significantly. On a sampling of construction projects, the cost of labor could account for 40 – 60 percent of the overall project cost.

According to Bizjournals, “the result is a shortage in the supply of skilled labor in the building trades, a trend that’s enabled everyone from mechanical contractors to steel manufacturers to punch their ticket when it comes to selecting the most attractive jobs at the most competitive rates. That in turn is turbo-charging the cost of construction and, in turn, a preference among developers to favor big, luxury projects to better recoup their costs and lock in attractive returns.”

Additional information is available on the BBJ’s website.

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 Boston Ranks Fourth Among U.S. Cities in Jobs

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Elevated view of Fenway office buildings

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Boston falls in the top 5 for best city for a job in the U.S. Some of the hottest opportunities are: nurse practitioner, applications developer and sales development representative.

A recent report from Glassdoor “ranked Boston the fourth-best city in the U.S. for jobs. Last year, Boston was No. 15 on the list, sandwiched between Dallas-Fort Worth and Minneapolis-St. Paul…According to the report, there are 121,498 job openings in the Boston area with a median base salary of $67,500 and a median home value of $387,400. Some of the hottest jobs in Boston include nurse practitioner, applications developer and sales development representative.”

At the top of the list for best U.S. cities for jobs was San Jose, California (No. 1), followed by San Francisco (No. 2) and Seattle (No. 3). Washington, D.C. was No. 5 on the list.

0 BRA Wants the Lights Dimmed on Boston’s Seaport

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: B&T

How bright is too bright for Boston’s Seaport? It appears that what has been proposed in the design phase is significantly dimmer than post construction and the regulators are rethinking approvals going forward.

From Banker&Tradesman:

The Vertex Pharmaceuticals headquarters’ “eye-catching arrays have met with mixed reviews in a city that often views changes in the skyline with suspicion.”

“Personally, I loathe the lighting on those buildings,” said Michael Davis, co-chair of the Boston Civic Design Commission. “We like interesting, progressive architecture, but subtlety is important and the new lighting we’re getting on the Fan Pier, no one would call subtle or sophisticated.”

Now, Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) officials are asking the developer to tone down the light show.

0 Seaport ‘sausage parcel’ at 399 Congress sells for $36M

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Wil Catlin

The sausage parcel in the Seaport sells for $36M. Where is this?

Credit: BBJ

According to the BBJ, “the 0.7-acre site at 399 Congress St. in Boston’s Seaport District…is a long, thinly shaped site — almost like a link of sausage — that’s sandwiched between the confluence of East Service Road, Congress Street and what’s now Boston Wharf Road in the Seaport.

You can read more about the Sausage Parcel site at 399 Congress on the Boston Business Journal, here.

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Seaport Office Space

0 Boston Office Market Maintains Impressive Growth

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: JLL

Office rents continue Northward while vacancy works Southward in Boston’s office Market. We will continue to see rent growth through 2016 as tenants continue to demand more space.

According to Globest, “the strong job market is fueling tenant demand and positive space absorption in Boston and surrounding areas such as Cambridge and the Route 128 markets. The office vacancy rate for Greater Boston ended 2015 at 12.1%, virtually flat as compared to year’s-end 2014. The average vacancy rate for 2015 was 12.2%, the lowest rate since 2002. Class A asking rents in the region rose to $42.06-per-square-foot. Asking rents haven’t been that high since 2002, Transwestern reports.”

You can read the full article on its website.

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 Map Indicates Walking Time to the Nearest MBTA Station

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Wil Catlin

The largest concentration of office space north of New York City is the Boston Financial District. A frequently asked question is, “what the nearest T line and how far is the walk?” Thanks to Aaron Doucett, we now have an answer.

Credit: Doucettmaps

From Boston.com:

[Doucett’s] current creation is a map that MBTA riders can use to visualize the walking distance between their home or office and the nearest MBTA station.

“I wanted to create something that anyone living in Boston or the surrounding cities would find interesting and useful,” Doucett said. “I think this map would also be very helpful for someone looking to move to the area, who is searching for apartments or jobs and wants to estimate their commute.”

Follow this link to view the MBTA walking map.

0 Millennium Tower Holds Topping Off Ceremony

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Wil Catlin

view of Millennium Tower mid construction

Credit: BBJ

The city skyline continues to emerge in Downtown Crossing with Millennium having its topping off ceremony.

It seems that, anywhere and everywhere one looks in Boston proper, the canary-yellow construction scaffolding and accompanying crane atop Millennium Tower is visible — peeking out from behind a Financial District building in Post Office Square, rising up behind the Federal Reserve building as one crosses the Summer Street bridge or smack in the middle of the 36th-story view of the Boston College Club at 100 Federal St…The tower celebrates its “topping off” ceremony this Thursday, which marks the end of structural construction. Millennium Tower residents are slated to move in next summer.

You can read the full article and view additional images of Millennium Tower on the Bizjournals website.