0 Cambridge and Kendall Square Office Rents Continue to Surge

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Wil Catlin

In short, the Office market in greater Boston has rents continuing to surge upward with fewer available options. Kendall Square and select Cambridge neighborhoods lead the charge, with rents up 76% since 2010.

Credit: The Real Reporter

From The Real Reporter:

Kendall has enjoyed the most dramatic surge in rents during the present economic boom, currently going into its seventh year, as local rents bottomed out in 2010 following the mortgage recession. Other areas benefitting from current dynamics include most urban areas as well as the Western suburbs, including 9 West, buoyed by changes in Needham.

Vacancy remains at very low levels as 49,000 sf of positive absorption was balanced with 66,000 sf of new property completions, resulting in a slight vacancy uptick of 0.1 percent, to 5.5 percent.

0 Paired-Down Green Line Extension Gets Go-Ahead

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Wbur

The Green Line needs to grow. The daytime and bedtime population is growing. We are seeing new developments of office, retail and residential throughout our city. The cost of residential units continues Northward and to ensure continued growth we need reliable public transportation into the city core.

A Wbur articles reports “the state transportation board and the MBTA’s fiscal control board voted Monday to tentatively move forward with a scaled-down proposal for the long-delayed Green Line extension (GLX), which would relocate Lechmere Station and bring six new T stations to Somerville and Medford…The new plan, which is estimated to cost $2.3 billion, will go to the Federal Transit Administration, which also must approve the modified proposal.”

You can read the full article on Wbur.org.

0 Lyft is on the hunt for new office space in Boston

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Lyft is on the move for a new office in Boston. CIC provided a good foothold to start the operation, but now a permanent home is in the cards according to Tyler George.

From the Boston Business Journal:

“We wanted to start at the CIC where we could integrate ourselves with a lot of really forward-thinking businesses in Kendall Square and Cambridge, but we wanted to have a permanent office to continue to grow our staff and have in-person support for our drivers,” [Lyft’s Boston General Manager Tyler George] said in an interview.

“We want to be able to have a big enough space to hold events and parties for drivers and passengers,” he said. “It’ll be a significant piece of real estate.” Venture-backed Lyft was founded in 2012 and earlier this year landed another $1 billion from investors including General Motors Corp., valuing the company at $5.5 billion.

0 Boston Among Top Hubs for International Investment

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credt: Bisnow

Since I am from Boston, I am clearly biased in thinking that this is The Hub. Boston has a wonderful cross section of talent and disciplines that make our collective community diverse as we compete in the public theatre.

This also holds true in real-estate and investment activity, according to a report from real estate firm JLL, “which ranked Boston 14th in the world, and fourth in the U.S., in terms of international investment activity in the last three years, relative to its size.”

“JLL listed Boston among a number of small to medium-sized cities in the U.S., Europe, and Australia with strong infrastructure and talent-driven economies that have become popular with foreign capital, as prices have surged in the most expensive big markets. Those cities have doubled their share of global real estate investment over the last decade.”

You can read more on the Boston Globe.

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 Boston Office Market Shows Strength in 2015

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Real Estate Times

The region’s office market continued its upward push with rents climbing while vacancy continues to decline.

A Boston Real Estate Times article includes the following highlights to express the market direction:

Market-wide vacancy averaged 12.2 percent for 2015, the lowest annual average since 2002. Vacancy for the quarter remained steady from third quarter at 12.1 percent.
Class A asking lease rates topped $42 per square foot for the first time since 2002, reaching $42.06 in fourth quarter, 3.9 percent higher than first-quarter 2015.
Boston’s Central Business District had 502,000 square feet of absorption in fourth quarter and totaled 1.58 million square feet for the year, the highest annual total since 2006.
Vacancy in Boston’s Seaport District dropped to 8.3 percent, its lowest level since 2000, when inventory was 6 million square feet smaller than today.
Cambridge closed the quarter at a remarkable 2.7 percent vacancy, its lowest mark on record.
There was 314,000 square feet of positive absorption in the Route 128 submarkets and 328,000 square feet in the Interstate 495 submarkets.

0 Boston Tops List of ‘Most Innovative States in America’

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Wil Catlin

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts packs a powerful punch when you combined education and innovation. Our state is number one in both of those categories, which is why we are a hotbed of new and expanding business across the state.

According to Bloomberg, “the Boston area’s Route 128 eked out a victory over Silicon Valley, as Bloomberg’s ranking of the most innovative states in the U.S. illustrates how universities can juice local economies…The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Behravesh’s alma mater, is one such school that’s provided a ripple effect for the local economy…MIT graduates have produced around 400 startup businesses over the past few decades.”

You can read the full Bloomberg article on its website.

Credit: Bloomberg

0 Boston Office Market Trends: 2010-2015

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Wil Catlin

If your company signed an office lease during the Great Recession chances are your rents are looking pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Office space in Boston is growing increasingly more expensive. So much so current asking rents are at some of the highest they have ever been. The top floors of the Prudential building are asking $90 per rentable square foot…$90!

Boston Office Market Trends

The urban leasing team at Boston Realty Advisors wanted to know how much has changed in the last five years across all of Greater Boston’s major neighborhoods: East Cambridge, Seaport, Financial District, Back Bay, North Station. They included image break downs of each market on asking rental rates and vacancy rates for the top tier buildings (Class A) and the middle market buildings (Class B). The facts are astounding!

If your company’s lease is expiring in the next 12-24 months chances are the second fixed expense on your balance sheet next to payroll will be increasing if you wish to renew. Now is the time to engage your real estate team on how the current market dynamics will impact the company’s short and long terms plans for office space, the company’s bottom line, and how your company uses its current space. Knowing the options, risks, and opportunities in the current real estate climate is the best hedge against a rising market. Its starts with being proactive. Time can be your best leverage but quickly your worst enemy when it is running out.

Robert LeClair is Managing Director and Partner at Boston Realty Advisors having handled hundreds of lease transactions for clients in Greater Boston for over the last 10yrs.

Click here to download the full PDF: Boston Office Market Trends 2010-2015

0 Jason Weissman Offers 2016 Economic Outlook

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bisnow

Jason Weissman, founder of Boston Realty Advisors, gives the Biznow audience his economic outlook for 2016:

Last year, four out of five deals were by companies in industries that previously were only minor players downtown: life science, pharma and healthcare. Millennials accounted for about 75% of Boston’s population growth, Jason says. Look for office vacancy rates in Boston and Cambridge to drop by 200 bsp and rents to rise. Since 2010 in the popular East Cambridge and Seaport office markets, asking rates have jumped nearly 65%, he tells us. In the severely supply constrained luxury condo sector, the only major projects are Millennium Tower, One Dalton, 50 Liberty and Pier 4 (for which BRA’s Advisors Living is the marketing consultant).

You can read the full article on Bisnow.

0 Boston Office Market Closes 10th Consecutive Quarter of Positive Absorption

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: TransWestern.net

The Boston Office market continues ahead with its 10th positive quarter of absorption.

From TWurls.com:

Greater Boston’s office market closed its 10th straight quarter of positive growth, albeit at a much slower pace than the 15-year record high of 2 million square feet absorbed during second-quarter, according to “officeSTATus — Q3 2015,” a new research report from Transwestern | RBJ. Despite tenants absorbing only 36,000 square feet of office space during third-quarter 2015, the market has seen a robust 3.6 million square feet of positive absorption during the past 12 months Ë•’ a more accurate indicator of market strength.

“We were unlikely to maintain the pace that was set during the second quarter, which had the highest absorption rate since the dot-com boom in 2000,” said Northeast Research Director Chase Bourdelaise. “An important contributor to the robust 12-month absorption growth is the continued positive gains to the region’s office-using employment, which has increased 12.0 percent since 2009.”