0 Empty store space in Downtown Crossing may become offices

Does the Amazon effect play into retail vacancy in Boston?  We, in short yes.  How we shop and what we shop for online has changed and will continue to do so.  Retail is still vibrant and strong, but not all retail spaces are created equal.  Some historical retails spaces are better suited for office which in part has to do their size and proximity to public transit.

An example of this transformation is the Cambridge Side Galleria Mall in the East Cambridge.  The red hot Kendal office and lab market will continue to gobble up under performing assets.

An empty storefront near 560 Washington St.

By Tim Logan GLOBE STAFF  APRIL 12, 2019

One of the biggest retail spaces in Downtown Crossing may soon become home to offices.

The Boston Planning & Development Agency on Thursday approved plans by the owner of Lafayette City Center to convert much of its long-empty ground floor into office space, perhaps to house the state agency that handles workers’ compensation claims.

The move by veteran Boston developers The Abbey Group highlights the soft market for large-format retailers as they face mounting online competition. The change also has something to do with the particular quirks of the building, which was built in the 1980s as the inward-facing Lafayette Place Mall before being repositioned as storefronts with office space above.

The proposed change also is raising concerns in some quarters about a block and a half of Washington Street in the busy shopping district being converted to office space.

Much of the building’s ground floor — about 75,000 square feet — has been empty for at least 15 years. The last sizable tenant, an Eddie Bauer outlet store, closed in early 2016. Abbey and its brokers have struggled to fill the space. Among other challenges, the first floor is as much as 7 feet higher than street level in places — a design quirk of the old indoor mall and its underground garage.

“We think of ourselves as creative developers who apply innovative thinking to problems like this,” Abbey chief operating officer David Epstein said. “It simply isn’t feasible” to use the space for retail, he said.

 

But Abbey has leased more than 500,000 square feet of office space on the floors above street level, mostly to tech companies. When the state began looking for 33,700 square feet to house its Division of Industrial Accidents — which needs to move out of the Government Center Garage ahead of a redevelopment there — Abbey offered up the ground floor.

A spokesman for the state’s real estate agency said it received five proposals for the office, including Lafayette Center. A final decision has not been made, he said.

Workers’ compensation courtrooms may not be the sort of retail and restaurant Downtown Crossing is known for, but it fits with other legal offices around the neighborhood, said Rosemarie Sansone, president of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District.

“This place has been empty for 20 years,” she said. “They found an unusual and interesting use for it. This is all good.”

Still, the shift comes as several key locations sit empty along Washington Street, from Lafayette Center to the long-shuttered Barnes & Noble (which is now being renovated by a new owner) to a cluster of empty storefronts at Washington and Bromfield streets that have been largely dark since plans to build a skyscraper there stalled in 2016.

Sansone acknowledged the empty buildings but also noted that several restaurants and stores have opened in and around Downtown Crossing in recent years. Building owners and the BID, she said, are aiming to bring in more retailers to cater to residents and workers who fill nearby office towers, including a day care center, pet stores, and more home goods stores. She also said Trader Joe’s is considering opening a grocery store in the neighborhood, though a Trader Joe’s spokeswoman would not confirm that.

 

Some landlords on Washington Street, Sansone said, are being patient, waiting for the right tenant.

“There have been some deliberate attempts to make sure that whatever comes is going to be successful, that it’s what people want,” she said.

One BPDA board member Thursday asked Epstein about the wisdom of leaving retail space like Lafayette Center vacant for years, especially given the effect on foot traffic for neighboring businesses.

“It’s a form of job destruction,” Carol Downs said. “I don’t really understand why this space was let to stay empty for so long.”

Epstein said the market has shifted away from the larger-format retailers it originally envisioned would lease at Lafayette City Center, and the technical challenges of opening in the building were too great for smaller stores. Filling two-thirds of the long empty storefront with office workers will bring foot traffic and, he hopes, will make it easier to rent the rest of the vacant space.

“We’re excited about the prospect,” Epstein said.

Tim Logan can be reached at tim.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.

0 Downtown Crossing gets a Taste of France

Baked goods have a new meaning at 1 Boston Place.  The 126 year old firm knows a thing or two about macaroons and croissants.

French Restaurant in downtown crossing Boston

Credit: Boston Business Journal

The Boston Business Journal notes, “Paul, a 126-year-old French bakery, is officially opening its Downtown Crossing location at 201 Washington St…The Downtown Crossing location will have a full-service restaurant — a first for the 126-year-old bakery — inside and out on the 50-seat terrace at One Boston Place.”

You can read more about Paul, the newest French restaurant to grace the hub, on the BBJ.

0 Boston Financial District Lands new Soup Restaurant

Looking for a free lunch?  Stop by the newest eatery in the Financial District at 185 Franklin Street on Wednesday January 21st from noon to 2 PM.

Soup Spot in Boston's financial district

Credit: Bostinno.Streetwise

From Bostinno.Streetwise:

For those unfamiliar with Hale and Hearty Soups, the chain has numerous locations throughout Manhattan, Long Island and Brooklyn, New York. The restaurant serves up several “everyday soups” as well as a variety of rotating “daily specials.” In addition to soup, Hale and Hearty also offers sandwiches, salads and sweets. Take a peek at their menu, here.

0 Recounting the Transformation of Fenway

Vision, patience and persistence have given Steven Samuels high marks in the real estate community with his transformation for the Fenway.

Van Ness in Fenway during construction

Credit: Boston Magazine

Boston Magazine put together an editorial that tracks Samuels’s personal development along with that of Fenway. Here’s an excerpt:

But the Verb and the new Fenway also tell a story about how to amass power in the most elegant of ways. Since acquiring his first Fenway properties more than 14 years ago, Samuels has united the neighborhood’s middle-class residents with top-tier financiers and the city’s notoriously fickle bureaucracy to arrive at a workable vision of what this dump of a place could become.

The full editorial is available on BostonMagazine.

0 WeWork Plans Café Across from South Station in Boston

shared office space in cambridge

Credit: Bostinno.Streetwise.co

Café owners lookout; a new provider is opening up with its own customer base.  WeWork continues to forge ahead and cater to the customer by offering additional services at street level  The latest venue is a Café’, by no sense is this a new concept, but it is if you are in the temporary office space business.  This fulfills two goals; first more services to its existing customer base.  Second; a street level presence to attract new customers.  Banking has also seen this in Café 360 by Capital One.

Bostinno.StreetWise.co is reporting a “Small scoop here: In the midst of a Boston expansion, WeWork has also taken street-level retail space in the Hub. The company plans to open a coffee shop at 745 Atlantic Ave., a few floors below its shared workspace in the same building…This sets up a potential barista duel for the hearts and minds of downtown Boston’s startup set. Cambridge Innovation Center, another shared workspace, is also developing a café project on the ground floor of its 60,000-square-foot Boston facility at 50 Milk Street. CIC’s founder and chief executive, Tim Rowe, demurred about a date for its opening.”

The full article details WeWork’s cafe project as well as how it fits in with its larger corporate strategy. You can read it on Bostinno.Streetwise.