0 Boston Seaport District Lands Starbucks Reserve Cafe

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Wil Catlin

The Seaport’s 101 Seaport Boulevard will be home to the latest offering from Starbucks Reserve Cafes, AKA, ultra-Starbucks with a premium price of $4 per coffee.

Banker&Tradesman notes “the Seattle coffee giant plans to open one of its “ultra-premium” Starbucks Reserve cafes this summer at 101 Seaport, a 17-story office building that is anchored by the regional headquarters of PwC…Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz recently told analysts the company plans to build more than 500 “coffee-forward” Starbucks Reserve stores in select global cities. Decked out in rustic decor, the new stores offer small-lot coffee batches brewed with a variety of techniques including siphoning, pour-over, espresso and Chemex. The stores also sell Teavana loose-leaf and packaged teas. The new cafes also come with a price premium, with a small coffee selling for $4 at a location that opened this year in Manhattan, according to Business Insider.”

You can read the full article on the Banker and Tradesman website, here.

0 Proposal Submitted to Illuminate Congress St. Bridge

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Herald

The Congress Street Bridge could be newly illuminated by N.H.-based Port Lighting, which would bring a new feel from dusk to dawn.

According to a Boston Herald article, “Port Lighting, working with Salem lighting designer Available Light, wants to illuminate the Congress Street bridge over Fort Point Channel with a series of 29 lit boxes symbolic of tea chests from the Boston Tea Party, along with color-changing spotlights and LED-lit lanterns.

You can read additional details on the Boston Herald, here.

0 Seaport is Bustling; Time To Find Boston’s next Hot Neighborhood

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

Prior to having a Starbucks, some complain that there isn’t a Starbucks around; once Starbucks opens in the area, some complain that the neighborhood has become gentrified.

Take this passage from a recent Banker and Tradesman article as affirmation:

A new Starbucks has opened facing the Fort Point Channel on Congress Street across from the Children’s Museum. And with that, it is official: the Seaport has been gentrified. The search for the next hot neighborhood must begin now, because the Seaport has jumped the shark…Hyperbolic, perhaps, but nonetheless true. The neighborhood’s conversion from the gritty artist community of Fort Point to the shiny office tower haven of the Seaport is all but complete.

Simple enough, the Seaport has seen a dramatic transformation and has some of the most expensive office building trades in Boston – in excess of $1,000 per square foot at 101 Seaport Boulevard.

Available Office Space Listings
Seaport Office Space for Lease

0 Multiple Winthrop Square Proposals Under Consideration

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Rendering of Winthrop square development

Credit: Banker and Tradesman

The Winthrop tower development site can take a couple of different paths, mixed use or all residential.

From Banker & Tradesman:

The two largest development proposals for Boston’s Winthrop Square have starkly different visions for an overlooked corner of the Financial District. Both developers Steve Belkin and Thomas O’Brien propose 725-foot-tall towers with a substantial allotment of luxury condominiums, reflecting the current market’s hottest category. But their approaches diverge in satisfying the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s requirements for an innovative economic development strategy and new downtown public spaces.

Six developers submitted mixed-use proposals for the 1-acre municipal garage site at 115 Federal St. The BRA will hear presentations from them in coming weeks with a goal of designating a developer by the end of June. That would set the stage for a review under the BRA’s Article 80 process for large developments later this year.

Related Property Listings
Current Winthrop Square Office Space for Lease

0 GE Names Architect for Seaport HQ

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Well, now we know who to ask what GE’s new Seaport office will look like: Doug Gensler.

From the Boston Business Journal:

Some of Gensler’s notable local work includes the architecture for Boston Properties’ (NYSE: BXP) Hub on Causeway project, a 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use project at North Station that will include a retail podium, office tower and hotel and residential tower. In the fall, a Gensler architect had created a rendering of the Hub on Causeway office with the logo “Plum” as the city of Boston was courting GE to relocate its headquarters using a code name “Project Plum.”

GE said in a statement that it “asked important and challenging questions about employee inspiration and teaming, environmental sustainability, and integration into the Boston innovation ecosystem” when considering architects. The headquarters must have a global scale and feel, GE said, while still remaining rooted in Boston.

0 Range of Boston Offices Considered for GE HQ

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

The selection for GE’s site didn’t come without evaluating many other options that ranged from Back Bay to North Station.

From the BBJ:

Boston officials initially considered 20 development sites, both a mix of private and publicly owned buildings and land parcels, to pitch to GE. And first on the list that Boston officials considered was Fort Point’s “100 Acres Area” — a master-planned effort to transform the existing surface parking lots around the Procter & Gamble/Gillette plant, and GE’s ultimate final choice for its permanent headquarters locations.

The sites were eventually narrowed to seven final options, five of which were located in the Seaport District, in a Dec. 1 pitch book to GE (NYSE: GE) executives. GE’s ultimate choice for a headquarters — a 2.5-acre plot on the Fort Point Channel owned by Procter & Gamble Co. — was not highlighted in the final pitch book.

0 Congress Street Bridge will be Illuminated at Night

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Herald

The use of light as art with bridges as a canvas have become the mainstay of nightlife in our cities. The Bay Bridge lighting designed by Leo Villareal is a captivating light show over the Bay. I look forward to what is in store for Congress Street.

Some of my other favorites are from the London Olympics:

Credit: Jenikya.com

Bridge with neon lights glowing at night

Credit: jenikya.com

0 Seaport Office Boom Leads to Traffic Complications

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Boston seaport office building on Congress St

303 Congress Street (click to view property details)

The Seaport is a vibrant live, work and play location that continue to evolve. The next challenge for all the success is how to mitigate the traffic.

From Banker & Tradesman:

Seaport Boulevard is a hotbed of construction, boasting corporate headquarters with worldwide name recognition…[and] with only two bridged access points, the neighborhood’s traffic is not yet overwhelmingly terrible (at least not any more than the rest of the city), but it grows worse with every new high-rise. Parking is becoming increasingly scarce, particularly in the winter months.

City planners are well aware of these issues and are taking steps to address them. Despite growing pains, the neighborhood known varyingly as Fort Point, the Seaport and yes, even the Innovation District, is an unparalleled success.

0 BRA Wants the Lights Dimmed on Boston’s Seaport

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: B&T

How bright is too bright for Boston’s Seaport? It appears that what has been proposed in the design phase is significantly dimmer than post construction and the regulators are rethinking approvals going forward.

From Banker&Tradesman:

The Vertex Pharmaceuticals headquarters’ “eye-catching arrays have met with mixed reviews in a city that often views changes in the skyline with suspicion.”

“Personally, I loathe the lighting on those buildings,” said Michael Davis, co-chair of the Boston Civic Design Commission. “We like interesting, progressive architecture, but subtlety is important and the new lighting we’re getting on the Fan Pier, no one would call subtle or sophisticated.”

Now, Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) officials are asking the developer to tone down the light show.

0 Boston Waterfront Redevelopment a Possible Byproduct of GE Deal

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

The influx of GE jobs may bring Seaport improvements along with them. Traffic in and out the Seaport offers frustrations beyond which Waze can redirect. Let’s hope we see much need infrastructure upgrades.

According to the Boston Globe, “Tucked in the agreement to bring General Electric Co.’s global headquarters to Boston is a commitment from the city to spend as much as $100 million to reopen the Old Northern Avenue Bridge, while the state will kick in $25 million to improve roads, pedestrian walkways, and bike lanes throughout the Seaport District…The money, city and state officials said Tuesday, is beyond what they publicly pledged to encourage the industrial conglomerate to relocate about 800 employees from its home office in Fairfield, Conn. The GE deal, announced last week, included up to $120 million in state subsidies for property and infrastructure expenses and as much as $25 million in tax breaks from the city.”

You can read more on the financial overtones of GE’s move to the Seaport on the Boston Globe’s website, here.