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 Seaport’s Northern Ave. Bridge in it’s last Months

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Magazine

The Northern Ave. Bridge is scheduled to come down in March. The bridge site is now the gateway to the Seaport, which continues to grow with the recent announcement of GE’s election to move its HQ to the thriving Boston submarket.

From Boston Magazine:

The rusty, sad structure that links downtown to the Seaport is set to be removed in March. But the Northern Ave Bridge wasn’t always such a rickety construction; it became a grand throughway across the Fort Point Channel after it was built in 1908. It’s also one of the remaining few swing bridges in Boston, meaning that it pivots when traffic in the water below needs to pass by.

The steel bridge was closed to vehicles in 1997—and recently to pedestrians in December 2014—after the Coast Guard asserted it was hazardous to cross and in danger of collapsing. The bridge’s demolition seems unfortunate, since the aged platform boasts a distinctive history.

0 Seaport Rents Continue to Move North

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Wil Catlin

new office space in boston seaport is constructed

Credit: Boston.com

A recent Boston.com article references apartment rentals in the Seaport, but what is expected for Class A and B office rents? Rents will continue to push Northward, which is due to limited supply in the Seaport submarket. GE moving to town won’t dramatically move the rent needle up or down, but ancillary service providers will continue to chip away at vacancy.

From Boston.com:

“If you look at what has happened since 2011, since post crash,” [Ishay Grinberg, president of Rental Beast] said. “Rents [in Seaport] went on average from about $3,100 to $4,100, from 2011 to 2013.” Then when demand wasn’t high enough, they plummeted almost 20 percent in 2014, but went back up in 2015, increasing 15 percent to an average of $3,850 per month.
Currently, rents are high, but so are vacancies—a rarity for the Boston market….More than 12 percent of all rental units in Seaport are currently vacant, according to Grinberg, while in Downtown only a little more than 2 percent are empty. The Greater Boston vacancy rate is 4 percent. And supply is still coming into Seaport, such as One Seaport Square, will include 832 units.

0 GE Selecting from 8 Boston HQ Options

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Herald

What will GE’s new corporate address be? Here are 8 locations within the Seaport that can accommodate their 2018 move.

The locations among consideration are listed out in a Boston Herald article:

The former Boston Public Schools headquarters at 26 School St. downtown. BPS vacated the historic 11-story, 160,000-square-foot building last year for new space in Dudley Square.
The MassDOT building at 185 Kneeland St. on the edge of Chinatown that is made up of three parcels totaling 5.8 acres, with an existing 104,000-square-foot office building that could be renovated.
Vacant land at 6 Tide St. in the Boston Marine Industrial Park, owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, also in the Seaport District. Current site plans call for a 355,000-square-foot development.
A vacant 1.8-acre Massport lot on Congress Street next to the John Hancock building known as “Parcel H” in the Seaport.
Massport land at the intersection of Massport Haul Road and World Trade Center Avenue. The vacant lot has the capacity for a 150,000-square-foot office building. It’s located near the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in the Seaport.
Vacant land at the corner of E and D streets, owned by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Both are in the South Boston/Seaport area. The D Street parcel can accommodate a building up to 75 feet in height, and a footprint of 122,000 square feet. The E Street parcel can accommodate up to 10 stories.
A vacant 1.2-acre Massport parcel known as “A-2” at the corner of Congress Street and World Trade Center Avenue in the Seaport area. It’s adjacent to the MBTA Silver Line; a planned parking garage is next to the parcel.
Two parcels of vacant Massport land, known as “D-2” and “D-3,” at the intersection of Summer and D street in the Seaport District. The approximately 4.9-acre site occupies two of the four corners at the intersection.

0 GE Moves Worldwide HQ to Boston Seaport

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

GE is coming, GE is coming! Boston is different, this is not just a place to have an office, it is an area to foster growth and explore far-fetched ideas and move dreams to reality.

This quote says it all:

“GE aspires to be the most competitive company in the world,” said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt in a statement. “Today, GE is a $130 billion high-tech global industrial company, one that is leading the digital transformation of industry. We want to be at the center of an ecosystem that shares our aspirations. Greater Boston is home to 55 colleges and universities. Massachusetts spends more on research and development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically-fluent workforce focused on solving challenges for the world. We are excited to bring our headquarters to this dynamic and creative city.”

I feel lucky to be practicing RE in this region that attracts companies like GE.

For more info on GE’s move to Boston’s Seaport, jump over to the BBJ’s article.

0 Seaport District Lands Blue Hills Bank

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Banker and Tradesman

The Seaport district continues to attract a wide array of B-to-C companies that to cater to the ever-growing daytime and nighttime population.

“Blue Hills Bank is set to open a new branch in the Boston’s Seaport District by summer of this year. The new 3,000-square-foot location at 85 Seaport Blvd. will feature user-friendly technology, a coffee bar and community space for receptions and seminars,” according to a Banker&Tradesman report.

You can read the full article, here.

Related Property Listings
Seaport Office Space for lease

0 GE Eyes Seaport Office Space in Boston

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

“We Bring Good Things to Life” was an advertising slogan used by General Electric between 1979 and 2003.[1] It was designed by the advertising firm BBDO led by project manager Richard Costello, who would later go on to become head of advertising at General Electric. The slogan was designed to highlight the diversity of the products and services the company offered. The slogan, after its many appearances in GE advertising, was responsible for increased popularity and a new image for the company.

Will GE claim Boston’s Seaport as their new corporate home? A recent article on the Boston Globe notes, “Boston and state officials have been talking frequently with each other and with General Electric Co. about relocating its global headquarters to the Seaport District, according to people familiar with the matter.”

0 322-story Office Tower Carrying ‘sails’ proposed for Seaport

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

Sails are coming to the Seaport are of Boston, if developer Jon Cronin has his way with the BRA.

From the Boston Globe:

The 250-foot-tall building, designed by architect Howard Elkus, would feature a twisting, angular design out toward the World Trade Center and Boston Harbor. It was inspired, in part, by the city’s recent push for bolder design in the booming Seaport, Cronin said, which has prompted other developers to move beyond the boxy looks that characterized many of the neighborhood’s earlier projects.

“We had already designed a striking yet cost-efficient tower until I attended Mayor [Martin] Walsh’s speech last December urging developers to build more architecturally significant buildings,” said Cronin in a statement. “We decided to meet that challenge.”

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 Class A Office Space with at Least 50k Sq. Ft. Draws Interest

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Skanska

According to CoStar there are 20 Class A properties that can offer 50,000 square feet or more of contiguous office space in the Seaport, Back Bay or the Financial District (see full chart below).

From the Boston Globe:

Despite Boston’s development boom, big chunks of office space are scarce right now. As of Oct. 1, there were 17 tenants looking for 50,000 square feet or more of top-end office space in downtown Boston, according to real estate firm JLL, and just 11 blocks big enough to house them. That means buildings with room are drawing interest.

Three would-be tenants have proposed leasing all 180,000 square feet that Boston Properties has at 120 St. James, in the base of the old John Hancock Tower, president Douglas Linde told analysts recently. The space PWC left behind for the Seaport, at 125 High Street, also went quick. And Goodwin Procter’s soon-to-be-former home at 53 State has seen strong interest.

One addition to that list may soon be Skanska, offering “brand-new space with all the bells and whistles.”

Building Address	Building Name	Submarket Name	Max Building Contiguous Space
200 Berkeley St	Berkeley Bldg	Back Bay	50,266
501 Boylston St		Back Bay	62,644
200 Clarendon St	John Hancock Tower	Back Bay	121,989
2 Copley Pl	Tower 2	Back Bay	122,606
101 Huntington Ave		Back Bay	60,858
111 Huntington Ave		Back Bay	70,191
31 Saint James Ave	Park Square Bldg	Back Bay	91,000
1 Beacon St	One Beacon	Financial District	105,786
1 Federal St	One Federal Street	Financial District	55,038
101 Federal St	101 Federal Street	Financial District	69,873
160 Federal St	Landmark	Financial District	54,221
One Financial Ctr	One Financial Center	Financial District	59,106
125 High St	High Street Tower	Financial District	78,034
50 Milk St		Financial District	39,644
50 Post Office Sq		Financial District	117,200
53 State St	Exchange Place	Financial District	382,332
60 State St		Financial District	57,897
100 Summer St		Financial District	115,402
40 Water St	Congress Square	Financial District	363,834
101 Seaport Blvd	PricewaterhouseCoopers	Seaport	77,646