Category Archives: Mixed-use Development

0 Development underway on $320 million mixed-use building near Fenway

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Rendering of proposed mixed-use development in Fenway on Boylston Street

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Would you take a $320 million gamble? It appears the Boston office market will embrace it. We have seen office vacancy’s drop while rents have continued upward over the recent years. The Boston office market has tremendous barriers to entry for new product, thus creating a supply and demand problem. Tenants are anxious to capitalize on the benefits of new construction, which allows them to be more efficient with the square footage per employee.

Developer Samuels & Associates is attempting to capitalize on the trend, beginning construction on a new office building on Boylston Street in Fenway. An article on the Boston Business Journal’s website reports:

Samuels & Associates is underway with construction of VanNess, a $320 million mixed-use project fronting on Boylston Street near Fenway Park. Slated for completion in 2015, the project is designed to include two buildings: an 8-story building housing 232,000 square feet of office space and another 11-story building with 172 residential apartments. The development also will include 210,000 square feet of retail space anchored by a 170,000-square-foot City Target, a new small-footprint store format launched by Target Corp. last year. There will also be about a dozen other retailers.

The full article is available on the BBJ.

Related Office Listings
Fenway Office Space

0 Boston Seaport District to House New $42M Boutique Hotel

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Seaport Hotel rendering

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Boston is home to some of the highest rooms rates in the country for hotels combined with a very limited supply. If you are coming to town to visit one of your new portfolio technology companies in the Seaport you will have a new spot. Sleeper Street, will be home to 136 room boutique hotel.

A Boston Business Journal report reveals, “the 100,000-square-foot Envoy Hotel, to be built at 66 Sleeper St., is slated to include 136 luxury guest rooms as well as a restaurant and bar. The plan also calls for a public roof deck with a bar and lounge that will offer city views. It will be located across the street from the John Joseph Moakley federal court house and one block inland from the Barking Crab restaurant in South Boston.”

Full Details are available on the BBJ’s website: Seaport Hotel set for 66 Sleeper Street

0 Boston Office Rents Climb 3.5 percent

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Boston Offices for lease

Credit: Boston Herald

This is only part of the story. True, rental rates have risen, but the overall occupancy cost has risen even more than just the rental rates. In a rising market, like we are currently in, landlord’s contribute less in tenant improvement costs and offer much less rent abatement. This then translates into a higher occupancy cost. During a down market, a landlord could offer 125 percent of the first years rent to go improvements of the space, that number now could be 75 percent of the first years rent.

The Boston Herald’s analysis notes “office rents in Greater Boston grew at an even higher rate — 3.9 percent — primarily due to strong growth in Cambridge, downtown Boston and the northwest submarket, the report found. And rents may begin to rise at an even faster rate because employment levels in office jobs are reaching pre-recession levels.”

The Herald article can be found here: Hub Office Rates Jump

0 Fenway Center Hits Roadblocks

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Architects rendering of Fenway Center in Boston

Credit: The Architectural Team via Boston Business Journal

Does building over the Turnpike have to make roadblocks?  Projects of this nature — like Fenway Center — simply take time and patience.

Amid a number of delays, the BBJ has directed it’s readers to one of the project’s positives to date:

“one part of the development is nearing completion. The new $13.5 million Yawkey Commuter Rail Station reconstruction project, a major component of the development paid for by the state, is underway and ahead of schedule and could be open in a few months.”

The full article is posted on the Boston Business Journal

0 Ice Skating at Rowes Wharf this Winter

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Rendering of an ice skating rink at rowes wharf

Credit: Equity Office via BBJ

The BBJ reported today that “Equity Office is planning an ice skating rink this winter under the iconic rotunda of Rowes Wharf, home of the Boston Harbor Hotel.”

This is the type of news that all readers can enjoy and think about; perhaps when their parents took them skating for the first time or a first date with someone special? Either way, what a great use for the space and I look forward to taking a few laps with my family.

Full details are available on the Boston Business Journal.

0 Millennium Tower Breaks Ground in Downtown Crossing

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Rendering of Millennium Tower in Downtown crossing Boston

Credit: rebusinessonline

What does $630M get you in Boston?  A 1.4 million square foot development in the heart of Downtown Crossing.  It will create new residences, office and retail opportunities.

Rebusinessonline is reporting that “Millennium Partners, a New York-based developer, has kicked off construction of its Millennium Tower and Burnham Building development in Boston’s Downtown Crossing neighborhood. Located at the site of the former Filene’s Department Store, the $630 million project consists of the 1912 Burnham Building and the 62-story, 450-unit mixed-use Millennium Tower.”

Continue on to rebusinessonline.com for more info.

Related Office Space Listings
Downtown Crossing Commercial Real Estate

0 Downtown Crossing’s Millennium Project Gets Grocery Store

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Millennium Place in Downtown Crossing

Rendering of Millennium Place in Boston

Our city continues to grow and expand. The addition of grocery stores helps establish a community, which we are seeing at Downtown Crossing’s Millennium project. Now those future residents can really live and work without relying on their car for milk, bread and batteries for the next Nor’easter.

“Massachusetts-based grocery store chain Roche Bros. will open its first downtown Boston location in late 2014…Roche Bros…[joining] advertising firm Arnold Worldwide as the first tenants of the new tower, and will move in by September 2014,” a BBJ article covering the Millennium Project’s future tenant, reports.

For more information on the announcement, continue on to the full article on the Boston Business Journal.

Additional details about the property are available on our residential website: Millennium Project in Downtown Crossing.

0 Marty Walsh would put City Hall up for Sale

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Boston City Hall

Credit: Boston Business Journal

So, politics aside should the city sell city hall for redevelopment?  Personally I am in favor of this and not simply based on economics. The standards that are available in the construction industry far surpass available options of ‘67, how we use space has evolved, and we have learned to do more with less.

The mayoral race seems to still be very crowded, but this got my attention.

The Boston Business Journal reported, “State Rep. Martin Walsh, a candidate for Boston mayor, wants to sell Boston’s City Hall to a private developer – who would presumably bulldoze the much-maligned structure and its underused, adjacent plaza in favor of hotels, apartments and retail development.”

Walsh spoke with the Boston Herald and noted, “You could put a hotel boutique here. You could put a full hotel here. You could have an office building. You could put so much in this area…we could have shops … that would fit in with Faneuil Hall Marketplace.”

Related Property Listings
Boston Office Space for Lease

0 Financial District Tower Proposed Again

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Proposed office tower location in Financial District Boston

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Round two for the proposed tallest building in Boston; the BRA might be offering the 47,738 square-foot parcel up for sale. The market rents in Class A Financial District buildings continue to move up as vacancy rates continue to drop.

According to the BBJ, “Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who had previously sought proposals to build a 1,000-foot tower with 1.3 million square feet of office space at the Winthrop Street Garage site on Devonshire Street between Winthrop Square and Federal Street, confirmed the BRA’s plan to seek a developer for the 47,738-square-foot parcel.”

Additional details can be found on the Boston Business Journal’s article, Menino Tower to get Second Chance

0 Sublease-market Risks Brought to Light with First Marblehead Corp’s IRS Problems

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First Marblehead Corp logoShould I sublease space or go direct to the landlord? That is a common question in the industry and the answer truly depends. If you are considering a sublease you need to consider the financial capacity of the sub lessor. After all, you could be paying your obligation, but if they aren’t covering the shortfall then you could find yourself looking for new space.

The Boston Business Journal wryly reports, “First Marblehead Corp.’s blasé mention this week that it might, possibly, probably owe the IRS some $300 million would be bad enough if the potential fallout was confined to its own operations. So listen up, all of you subtenants over at 31 St. James Avenue and 800 Boylston St.”

The BBJ’s extensive look at First Marblehead Corp’s IRS issues is available on its website: First Marblehead’s IRS headache