Category Archives: Boston Skyscrapers

0 Boston’s John Hancock Tower Nears 47

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Hancock tower in Boston

Credit: Boston Globe

Boston is under a major construction boom which is evident as you look across our skyline.  The John Hancock tower was a major milestone in our city when the project broke ground in August of 1968.

From the Boston Globe:

The groundbreaking ceremony for New England’s tallest building, the John Hancock Tower, was on Aug. 21, 1968. The 60-story minimalist structure was constructed with huge panes of reflective glass that proved to be a problem in the 1970s. Many panes of glass crashed to the ground with high wind speeds, causing street closures and huge safety concerns. After pane replacement and structural fixes that stabilized the tower, the actual cost of the construction nearly doubled the projected budget.

0 Boston High-Rise Office Space: Rents Exceeding $90 per sq. foot

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745 Atlantic Ave office space in Boston

Credit: Bizjournals.com

Boston office rents continue to grow as tenants continue to migrate to downtown Boston high-rise office buildings.

From the Boston Business Journal:

Low-rise and Class B offices are now commanding rents in the mid- to upper $40s range, while high-rise rents are reaching well past the $90 per square foot range, according to second-quarter research from commercial real estate services firm DTZ. Class B office rents are up 21 percent from last year in the Financial District, 12 percent in the North Station region and 20 percent in South Station, DTZ said.

“It’s also worth noting that nearly 25 percent of Boston’s office inventory has traded hands in the past 12 months,” the research report said.
Meanwhile, Cambridge also maintained its post as the strongest real estate market in Massachusetts, with $2.2 billion in sales activity. That’s more than half of the overall $4 billion in total sales volume so far this year, according to recently released second-quarter research from JLL..Direct average rents rose more than 5 percent year-over-year in nine out of 12 of Boston’s submarkets, topping out with 16.3 percent growth in East Cambridge.

0 New Boston Skyscrapers will Make — or Brake — the Skyline

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Copley square office buildings in Boston

Credit: Boston Globe

The greater Boston audience has an opinion about just about anything, including our skyline. This poses a challenge to Boston’s strongest developers and architects to reshape our city into something elegant, energizing, and functional.

From the Boston Globe:

No matter how elegantly they may be paved or planted, urban plazas are boring, windy, and little used, especially in weather like ours. The Prudential, back before its Arctic plazas were filled in with shopping arcades, was a good example. The Federal Reserve Bank, next to South Station, is another. It’s a handsome, eloquent Diva tower behind a plaza that has the charm of a recently abandoned battlefield.

As far as the public is concerned, cities aren’t made of buildings and plazas, anyway. Cities are made of streets and parks. From the point of view of urban design, the buildings are there to shape those public spaces and feed them with energy.

0 Tower Height Contended on Boston Harbor Garage Site

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rendering of the proposed towers at Boston Harbor

Credit: Boston Globe

The Boston Waterfront will continue to change and be the gateway to our city.  City Hall has moved to the positive side, but it appears not all the abutters are for the size of the Harbor Garage site.

From the Boston Globe:

Boston Redevelopment Authority officials said they plan to recommend Wednesday that a skyscraper on the site of the Boston Harbor Garage be allowed to reach up to 600 feet. That would essentially match the taller of the two buildings Chiofaro has proposed for the property and would be far taller than any other neighboring building overlooking the harbor.

But Chiofaro would not get everything he wants: City officials will propose to limit development at the garage site to 900,000 square feet. The two-building complex proposed by Chiofaro last year would total 1.3 million square feet, with a mix of offices, residential units, and other uses…Chiofaro declined to comment, so it’s unclear whether the smaller building area would limit the developer to one tower instead of two.

0 State Street Tower Offered to Public

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State Street high-rise

Credit: Boston Globe

Office buildings are trading at records levels and the influx of capital into Boston shows no sign of letting up.  1 Lincoln Street which is home to State Street is offering a new twist, you can own a piece.

From the Boston Globe:

[The] venture led by Fortis Property Group of New York, which bought the 1.1-million-square-foot tower for just under $900 million in 2006, would sell a 48.88 percent interest in the building through a real estate investment trust called ETRE REIT, according to documents that were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the documents, ETRE said the State Street tower, built in 2003 and fully occupied by State Street Corp., is currently valued at $1.1 billion.

The move to hold a public stock offering for the building is the idea of ETRE Financial LLC, founded three years ago with the purpose of “facilitating the public listing of individual real estate assets to improve access, liquidity, and transparency in commercial real estate,” according to its website.

 

0 115 Winthrop Square Considered for Boston’s Second-Tallest Building

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rendering of 115 Winthrop Square

Credit: Banker&Tradesman

The Boston skyline is poised to see significant change of the next five years as projects that are under construction come online.  115 Winthrop Square is getting attention and might be home to Boston’s second tallest building if O’Brien has anything to do with it.

According to Banker&Tradesman, “developer Thomas O’Brien of Boston-based HYM Investments is proposing a 69-story, 780-foot-tall residential tower that would become the city’s second-tallest building, just 10 feet shy of the Hancock Tower…O’Brien was one of eight developers who submitted proposals to build a skyscraper in the Financial District. The Boston Redevelopment Authority sought proposals for a one-acre parcel currently occupied by the municipal garage at 115 Winthrop Square. O’Brien’s plan calls for a substantial redevelopment of the square, including a new Boston public school and a relocated St. Anthony Shrine, friary and ministry center. Under the O’Brien proposal, the church properties and school would be built on the former garage site and a residential tower with 11,000-square-foot floor plates would be built on the former shrine property.”

The HYM Investment Group can be seen, here.

 

0 Boston Developers Contending for Financial District Tower

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new Boston office tower financial district

Rendering of Accordia Partners’ proposed tower. Credit: Boston Globe

The shuttered garage that falls between Devonshire and Federal Street in the core of Boston’s Financial District shines brightly as an opportunity for eight suitors to make their mark on the Boston Skyline.  Tenants in recent quarters have flocked Downtown to take advantage of value rents and infrastructure driving office vacancy down to 10 percent.

The Boston Globe details the eight developers “have filed proposals for a skyscraper, several of which would be nearly as tall as the city’s largest, the Hancock Tower, on the site of a city-owned parking garage that is now closed. The competitors include a who’s who of local and national developers, a measure of how strong Boston’s real estate market has become…If approved, the Winthrop Square project would add another tower to the fast-changing Boston skyline. Already, five towers over 600 feet are proposed or are being built while other large complexes are under development downtown.”

You can read the full article on the Globe website

0 Boston Office Rents Among Country’s Most Expensive

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Boston Rents continue its upward push with four office markets leading that charge: Back Bay, East Cambridge, Financial District and Seaport.  The Class A market within Back Bay is clearly leading the way, while some value still exists within the Class B market.  A real driver in the increased rents is the cost of tenant improvement dollars going from shell space to fix up space.  Not uncommon to see those numbers north of $75 per square foot.

office market in Boston

Credit: Boston Business Journal

According to the BBJ, “the Back Bay’s average rents hovered over $60 last year [while]…Midtown New York commanded about $130 per square foot, and both San Francisco and Washington rents topped $75 per square foot.”

You can read the full article on the Boston Business Journal.

0 Residential Tower Planned for Greenway

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Greenway condos

Credit: BBJ

A new residential mid-rise is coming to Broad Street on the Greenway, included in the project will be a street level café and 52 residential units.  What’s going away?  The Times Irish Pub & Restaurant.

The BBJ notes the “project would create 175 construction jobs. If approved by the BRA, construction would begin this summer and wrap up in winter 2016…The proposed 110 Broad St. project is located adjacent to 55 India St., a surface parking lot which is the site of a planned $45 million, 12-story, 44-unit condominium tower with ground-floor retail tower that’s been approved by the BRA.”

You can find the full article on the Boston Business Journal, here.

0 Back Bay and North Station May Get New Office Towers

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north station project

Credit: B&T

Boston Properties is moving forward with 2 major projects located at 2 transportation hubs.  Back Bay Station is the proposed spot of a new tower development, while North Station will benefit from the same.

From Banker and Tradesman:

The real estate investment trust said this morning it has entered a joint venture to acquire the air rights for the 377,000-square-foot initial phase of the North Station redevelopment. It also has signed a 44-year extension on its lease for the Clarendon Street parking garage with the state Department of Transportation, part of a larger proposal to build two towers containing offices, residences and retail above Back Bay Station. As part of the agreement, Boston Properties will take over management of the renovated station, which serves the Orange Line subway and several commuter rail lines.