0 Cambridge Office Building at 90 Hamilton St. Sells for $2.6M

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Wil Catlin

office space at 90 Hamilton Street in Cambridge MA

Credit: Banker & Tradesman

Boston Realty Advisors capital markets team completes another sale transaction. 90 Hamilton Street is located in Cambridge, MA.

From Banker & Tradesman:

“MRH Hamilton LLC of Brookline bought a 7,800-square-foot office building 90 Hamilton St. in Cambridge for $2.6 million…The parcel is suitable for use as an investment property or redevelopment for a variety of commercial or residential uses, according to Boston Realty Advisors.”

You can read the complete B&T article, here

0 Cambridge Co-working Office Space Sends Five Entrepreneurs to Shark Tank

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Workbar, coworking space in Cambridge MA

Credit: BBJ

Co-working office spaces continue to create a platform where innovative ideas can turn into companies. Yes, I’m a fan of Shark Tank and I love how the show boils a product pitch down to five minutes from pitch to investment.

Reporting on the local angle on the show, the BBJ notes that “entrepreneurs drove from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to pitch their business ideas at Cambridge co-working space Workbar on Thursday in hopes of getting national exposure on ABC’s Shark Tank…About 100 people were standing in line an hour before pitches started.

The growing interest and relevance of co-working office space in Cambridge is beneficial to both the entrepreneurs, who will spur future growth, as well as the environment and infrastructure that surrounds it.

For details on the five selected entrepreneurs, read the full article on the Boston Business Journal.

0 Boston Emerges as State’s Tech Startup Hub

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Has Boston really become the state’s capital for startups? Well yes. This came to be for two primary reasons; public access and cost of real estate. Downtown Crossing, DTX, is serviced by the T’s Red, Green Orange and Blue lines. Combined with the Silver Line and a short walk from South Station it offers employers a great recruiting tool as they vie for new talent.

Economics. Plain and simple. DTX is the last real value play within the Class B market and is what most startups are seeking. Opportunities can still be achieved with in the upper $20’s PSF while most buildings are pricing in the low to mid $30’S PSF.

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The Boston Globe’s niche online business publication, betaboston.com, notes the following:

Last year…Boston accomplished a previously unheard of feat in the tech world by having more venture capital deals than Cambridge — for years the center of gravity of the startup scene in Massachusetts. And a large number of those deals went to companies located outside the Innovation District, in neighboring business zones such as the Financial and Leather districts and Downtown Crossing.

0 Boston Office Market Maintains Strong Results for Landlords

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Wil Catlin

155 Federal Street

The Boston Office market continues to produce strong results for landlords. The low rise Class A and Class B market in the Financial District continue to offer a value option to prospective tenants.

According to news site, news.gnom.es, “First quarter 2014 marked Greater Boston’s fourth consecutive quarter of positive absorption. The market also posted its highest four-quarter positive absorption total since 2007, with 3.6 million square feet absorbed from second quarter 2013 through first quarter 2014.”

The article quotes 542,000 SF of positive adsorption in Boston in the First Quarter. You can read the full article, here.

0 Boston Seaport Attracts Tech and Biotech Start-ups

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Wil Catlin

World Trade Center East, 2 Seaport Lane

Boston continues to expand into the Seaport. The once-famed $7-per-day-dirt parking lots have been replaced with corporate office space for the biotech industry, law firms, financial services and newly funded technology companies. Did this happen overnight? Well, no. The Ted Williams Tunnel to the airport, and onramp to Mass Turnpike East and West fostered accessibility and spurred new opportunity. That level of infrastructure was the catalyst of for our current development cycle, combined with demand for residential and office development.

The Boston Globe states:

“The new face of Boston’s Seaport is the old face of the city’s downtown. The lawyers and accountants who are financing the waterfront construction boom are abandoning Boston’s historic commercial center for something newer and more exciting. This exodus is opening up cheaper commercial space for creative firms and tech companies…Boston’s downtown and its waterfront are slowly swapping identities.”

More information on the Seaport’s transition is provided in the Boston Globe’s full article.

Alternatively, you can view our listings for currently available office space in the Seaport.

0 Boutique Buildings Growing in Boston

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Not all new construction project are towers. Some are boutique buildings designed to blend into their surroundings and fit on a much smaller footprint.

A boutique building recently highlighted on the Boston Herald’s website is Zero Farnsworth. The Herald notes, “in a smaller-scale building you can pay much more attention to the quality of the design and the details,” said Damian Szary, a principal at Boston-based Redgate Real Estate Advisors, whose Gate Residential unit is developing a nine-story condo complex along Congress and Farnsworth streets in the booming Seaport District. With its floor-to-ceiling glass windows all around, Zero Farnsworth will be strikingly contemporary in an area of brick warehouses.”

The full Herald article is available on BostonHerald.com.

0 Is Boston the New Innovation Hub?

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bostinno.Streetwise.co

Is downtown Boston the new innovation district? Well, yes it is. Downtown Boston holds some of the components critical to an emerging companies success. First is access; the famed Red Line is what is most widely discussed. It provides that vital link from Harvard and MIT to the North while offering a stop at South Station, which is the largest commuter hub.

From our internal data, the Downtown Crossing Market offers the last great value option for tenants. This is being driven up by the lack of opportunities in the Seaport, Kendall and Back Bay.

According to bostinno.streetwise.co, “now that the rents are creeping upwards both around Kendall and Harvard Square and the Innovation District, entrepreneurs – and a few of the organizations that cater to them – seem to be settling in Downtown Boston.”

To read more about this trend, follow the link to Bostinno.

0 Boston Office Towers: Occupancy Drop; Rents still Climbing

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Wil Catlin

28 State Street – Office Building

Where is the value in office space within Boston? Low and mid-rise Class A.

Tenants in recent years have worked on space efficiency like State Street with their new facility in the Seaport, which will have less than 100 square feet per employee. Additionally, tenants have sought out a flight to quality by moving up in floors during the recent economic downturn and locking in rates for a longer term.

The Boston Business Journal cites a survey by Jones Lang LaSalle, “which examined 46 towers in the Back Bay, Financial District and the Seaport, found 22 buildings where occupancies dropped, while 21 saw increases and three were flat, year-over-year. Within the 31.8 million-square-foot office market, 5.7 million is available to lease – the equivalent of three John towers.”

More information from the survey is available on the BBJ’s website.

0 Tech Sector Hoping Walsh can Keep Downtown Office Space Affordable

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Wil Catlin

Office space at 200 High Street in the Financial District

Mayor Menino departs in January for Mayor Elect Walsh. Will our economy grow and prosper with the next administration? Well, it is a delicate balance that will spur development while maintaining affordability.

Boston.com posted a dense, thought-proviking piece examining the impact of the mayorial change on small business locations and city-based office space. Here are a few notable quotes from the article:

I spoke with a half dozen tech entrepreneurs about their hopes for and expectations of the incoming Walsh administration, and picked up on two major themes…They want the new mayor to help keep office space affordable and to improve public transit in the Innovation District.”

IdeaPaint president John Stephans told me his business, which is moving from Ashland to Boston in January, would have liked to relocate sooner but found the cost prohibitive until it enjoyed several successful years.

“We always wanted to be in the city, as do a lot of companies,” he said. “But I think companies feel priced out, especially young, venture-backed start-ups.”

The full article is available on Boston.com, here.

0 How Expensive is Kendall Square?

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Wil Catlin

The short answer is mid $50’s PSF which equates to a 10 percent increase over last year. That being said, the real cost is even greater, due to fewer concessions from landlord’s. The East Cambridge office market is at a 6.4 percent vacancy rate, which contributes to the elevated rental numbers. The other side of this is there are fewer options for mid-sized tenants. Landlords would prefer larger full floor users as opposed to multi tenanted floors.

A Banker & Tradesman article from last week reported on one company migrating to Kendall Square, in East Cambridge:

“Biomeasure Inc. will abandon its Milford location for the proximity to hospitals and research institutions offered by Cambridge’s Kendall Square. The firm, a subsidiary of French pharmaceutical company Ipsen, has leased 63,000 square feet of space at 650 East Kendall St. in Cambridge. The company is moving its U.S. research and development operations from 27 Maple St. in Milford.”

You can jump over to the full article on Banker and Tradesman.

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