Category Archives: Seaport Office Space Boston

0 Cape Air targets Boston’s Long Wharf as a seaplane docking spot

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Seaplanes are making waves in Boston.  Boston Harbor last saw seaplanes in the 1940’s and as the congestion continues worsen it appears they will be making a comeback for trips to NYC.

Cape Air targets Boston’s Long Wharf as a seaplane docking spot

The Boston skyline is viewed from Long Wharf.
GARY HIGGINS

By   – Real Estate Editor, Boston Business Journal | 

 

Cape Air has its eyes on a new location on Boston Harbor to launch its long-planned seaplane service between Boston and New York: Long Wharf.

Officials from the Hyannis-based airline will host a public meeting Wednesday, Dec. 18 at the Long Wharf Marriott to discuss “a proposal to serve Boston Waterboat Marina, 66 Long Wharf, with a 9-seat seaplane airline service available to the public.”

Andrew Bonney, senior vice president of planning for Cape Air, said in an interview that the airline has worked with officials including the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Boston Planning and Development Agency regarding launching a Cessna Caravan Amphibian between Boston and New York.

Cape Air flights would load at the tip of Long Wharf before taxiing one mile out to Boston Logan International Airport’s Runway 1432 and taking off, Bonney said. The flights would use the same spot for landing.

Before the service can launch, Cape Air would need to obtain a license amendment from the BPDA, which owns Long Wharf.

“The BPDA has asked Cape Air to conduct a community process, including stakeholder outreach, about their proposal for Long Wharf before anything can move forward,” spokesperson Bonnie McGilpin said in a statement. “If there is support for the proposal, BPDA would need to amend the license for Long Wharf to reflect these uses and that would require approval by the BPDA Board.”

If Cape Air receives the city license amendment and other federal regulatory requirements, Bonney hopes to launch by springtime.

A one-way flight would cost between $320 and $340 to travel the 191 miles between the two cities, according to Bonney. Traveling by plane or train from Boston to New York typically takes around three and a half hours, while a seaplane can go downtown to downtown in one hour, he said.

In the 1920s, seaplanes going between Boston and New York would dock behind South Station. But seaplane service hasn’t existed in Boston since the 1940s.

“We think it’s really exciting to be able to bring back this mode of transportation to the city of Boston,” Bonney said.

Catherine Carlock can be reached at ccarlock@bizjournals.com. Follow her on Twitter at @BosBizCatherine 

0 The Creation of a Neighborhood: Boston’s Seaport

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Boston Seaport sq.

Credit: BBJ

What does it take to build a neighborhood in Boston? The creation of the Seaport is just that: in just over a decade we have gone from dirt lots, through planning, to a famed destination location that supports life, work & play.

Urbanland recounts a number of key milestones that propelled the development of the contemporary Boston Seaport:

With the completion of the Big Dig, it became clear that there was “an opportunity to develop a new city” in the Seaport, recounts Charles Leatherbee, director of development for Skanska USA, which has constructed multiple office and residential projects there since, including a 225,000-square-foot (21,000 sq m) office project in the marine park that broke ground in June. Observes Leatherbee, “Make no mistake, the Seaport has access to the single greatest resource the city has—the harbor—and they’ve been able to develop something quite cool, in my view.”

Additional Market Info
• Boston Seaport Real Estate
• Office Space for Lease in Boston Seaport

 

0 A Seaport Gondola Remains a Possibility

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view from Gondola over city

Credit: Boston Globe

Would you ride it if they built it? Now that is the question. To tell you the truth, I personally don’t have an answer. If it was efficient and saved time, absolutely.

From the Boston Globe:

The Boston Planning and Development Agency “is planning to spend $400,000 studying transit options in a neck of Boston that has become so difficult to access that some are suggesting sailing over clogged streets…The study will likely take more than a year, and consider whether additional bus, rail, ferries, bike-share, and ride-hailing services can help. And it will also look at the polarizing proposal to run cable cars far above Summer Street as part of an aerial gondola system…The gondola proposal might sound fanciful, but a major development firm is willing to cough up $100 million for it.”

0 How Stable is Boston’s Flourishing Seaport?

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Boston’s Seaport will continue to be on the forefront by planning ahead as construction and development continues. Lower-Level and 1st-floor space is no longer used for utility infrastructure, developers and landlords. New projects house these systems on the 2nd floor or the roof, where appropriate.

Seaport Square Boston

Credit: The Architect’s Newspaper

290 Congress Street, owned by Boston Properties, utilizes a water fence that gets installed should it be necessary. To-date this has only been used once in March of 2018.

From the Financial Post:

in this old city’s booming Seaport District, General Electric is building its new world headquarters, Amazon is bringing in thousands of new workers, and Reebok’s red delta symbol sits atop the new office it opened last year. Three businesses are testing self-driving cars, other dynamic companies are planting their flag, and trendy restaurants and apartments have gone up virtually overnight. But after bad flooding during a storm this past winter, critics wonder whether it was a bright idea to invest so much in a man-made peninsula that sits barely above sea level.

Environmental activists warn much of the district, transformed from a wasteland of surface parking lots, rotting piers and abandoned rail yards into an economic engine and one of the city’s most expensive neighbourhoods in a matter of years, simply isn’t prepared for the long haul.

 

0 Host of Ferries Heading to Boston Harbor

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Getting from here to there across Boston Harbor is poised to get a little easier in the coming months.

Ferry on Boston harbor around Seaport

Credit: Boston Globe

The Boston Globe recently highlighted three ferry services that could be available to commuters in and around the Boston Seaport in the coming months:

  • Wynn Resorts…hired Charlestown-based Boston Boatworks to build three ferries. The goal is to cart about 40 riders at a time to and from its Encore Boston Harbor resort casino in Everett, scheduled to open next year.
  • A commuter ferry between the Seaport and Lovejoy Wharf North Station is expected to launch as soon as September, providing easier passage to the Seaport for commuters from the north.
  • The Institute of Contemporary Art will soon launch a ferry from its Seaport museum to East Boston, where it’s opening a secondary campus in June. This service, however, isn’t commuter-friendly; spokeswoman Colette Randall said passengers will need either a ticket or membership with the ICA to board.

0 Boston Seaport Ferry Trial Set to Begin

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Boston financial district office space

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Are you looking for an easier way to Boston’s Seaport? The ferry is coming! OK, it’s a trial, but at least it’s a start.

According to Banker and Tradesman, “the trial service – with ferries making the trip to Fan Pier in approximately 13 minutes – was originally projected to launch in fall 2017. Related Beal committed to pay $794,000 and a $500,000 grant from Massachusetts Department of Transportation will cover the rest of the dock project, [Rich McGuinness, deputy director for waterfront planning at the Boston Planning and Development Agency] said. The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority will oversee the trial service operation, which will be partially funded by corporate subsidies.”

Additional information is available on the BBJ.

0 MassMutual Plots 300,000 SF Office Building on Parcel E

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Springfield office building

Credit: Boston Business Journal

The Seaport in Boston is not only home to tech, life science, law firms and luxury condos, but now with be home to MassMutual with room for 1,000 workers. The new office building will be a 300,000 SF building on Parcel E.

Roger Crandall, MassMutual’s chairman, president and CEO “said the decision to expand in Boston and upgrade its Springfield office followed ‘a thorough strategic assessment of our operations and footprint.’ Following that, MassMutual ‘concluded that our home state of Massachusetts is the best place for us to grow and thrive over the long term’…The Boston office will be developed on property MassMutual jointly owns with The Fallon Co., a Boston-based real-estate development firm. Fallon Co. and MassMutual together acquired the Fan Pier development zone in 2005 for $115 million, and Parcel E has remained undeveloped since.”

You can read the full Boston Business Journal article on its website, here.

0 Commercial Office Markets to Watch in 2018

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Office towers in Boston

Credit: Commercial Cafe

Boston has strong fundamentals and looks for increased rent growth in 2018.

Here’s a 2017 Assessment from Commercial Cafe:

Boston averaged between 11% and 12% office vacancy in 2017. Desirable tech submarkets are priced at a premium here, while emerging submarkets often offer discounts–the overall average asking rent in tech submarkets is priced at a 16% premium in East Cambridge (where inventory has decreased).

The Boston market also retained positive absorption, as vacancy dropped 0.4 percentage points to 12.0 percent last year. Large tenant move-ins have driven the 2017 Boston CBD market, with major shifts including Natixis Global Asset Management’s move into its new 150,000-square-foot headquarters at 888 Boylston St. in the Back Bay.

0 Seaport Square Project May Yield Waterfront Library

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Rendering of potential Boston waterfront Library in Seaport

Credit: Boston Globe

The Seaport is poised to get a library, but let’s wait to see if it materializes in Boston’s booming commercial real estate sector.

From the Boston Globe:

[State Representative Nick] Collins, a Democrat who represents South Boston, is among those who have complained that the burgeoning district is being built without enough of the places — like a library — that make a neighborhood feel like home. As WS Development finalized plans to put housing, office buildings, and retail on 12.5 acres of parking lots, Collins pressed the developer to add a library to the project, known as Seaport Square.

But when the Boston Planning & Development Agency approved the developer’s plan Nov. 16, it required two performing arts centers, but no library. That same week, however, Collins inserted a provision into a large state bond bill that would set aside $10 million for “creation and construction of a Boston Public Library branch on the South Boston Waterfront.”

0 Is the Seaport Gondola How You’re Getting to Work Tomorrow?

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Gondola in city, like Boston

Credit: Curbed Boston

Is getting to work taking too long since your office has moved to Boston Seaport? If so, the Seaport’s solution to your congestion could be a gondola system, according to Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty.

From Biznow:

Millennium Partners has proposed a Summer Street, cable-propelled gondola network running from South Station to a property one of its subsidiaries owns in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park, the Boston Herald reports. As many as 71 10-passenger cabins could move as many as 4,000 passengers per hour in and out of the Seaport, where traffic is notoriously congested.

“A lot of commercial entities are struggling with whether they’re going to renew their leases or they want to come here, because it’s hard to get in and out,” Flaherty said on the Herald’s radio station Wednesday. “The gondola [system] … solves that.”

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