0 ‘Get Paid While You Wait’ in Boston Real Estate

extra office space in boston for rent

Credit: Kinglet

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times: A company has outgrown its space and they’re growing. Fast. But, how much space will they need a few years from now is anyone’s best guess. Unfortunately, guessing games won’t cut it. Guess too low and they’re moving again in no time. Guess to high, giving them room to grow, and they won’t be able to afford the rent today.

Countless businesses have sprouted up to solve this challenge. The solutions include incubators and hubs, as well as daily and even hourly rentals, including relative newcomers LiquidSpace and Breather.

There’s another approach that’s picking up steam. Instead of downsizing, a host of new startups have enabled emerging companies to super-size their office space. Companies like PivotDesk and Kinglet, available only in Baltimore for now, help organizations rent out their extra desks, on a month-by- month basis.

While PivotDesk and competitors are still new, the approach isn’t. In fact, in the investing world, it’s an age-old approach known as dividend investing. And fans of this approach aptly refer to it as the “getting paid while you wait” model. Meaning, you buy the stock today and get paid a dividend while the stock slowly grows in value. In the office space analogy, you may only need 2,500 square feet today, but instead, go for 5,000 square feet and rent out the empty desks until you need team.

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0 WeWork Adds 600 Desks at South Station Co-working Space

south station co-working space at wework

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Temporary workspace provider’s continue to grow to address the demand from the entrepreneurial clientele at 745 Atlantic Street. This comes in addition to news that it will also be adding its first Cafe in Boston at the location.

From the BBJ:

Months after opening a co-working space near Boston’s South Station, WeWork is expanding due to increased demand from startup founders looking to rent workspace in the Boston area. The New York-based boutique office space firm opened its 90,000-square-foot location at 745 Atlantic Ave. near South Station in February and will now add about 600 new desks and 48,000 square feet to that location later this fall. WeWork also has a 50,000-square-foot location in the Seaport District.

0 WeWork Plans Café Across from South Station in Boston

shared office space in cambridge

Credit: Bostinno.Streetwise.co

Café owners lookout; a new provider is opening up with its own customer base.  WeWork continues to forge ahead and cater to the customer by offering additional services at street level  The latest venue is a Café’, by no sense is this a new concept, but it is if you are in the temporary office space business.  This fulfills two goals; first more services to its existing customer base.  Second; a street level presence to attract new customers.  Banking has also seen this in Café 360 by Capital One.

Bostinno.StreetWise.co is reporting a “Small scoop here: In the midst of a Boston expansion, WeWork has also taken street-level retail space in the Hub. The company plans to open a coffee shop at 745 Atlantic Ave., a few floors below its shared workspace in the same building…This sets up a potential barista duel for the hearts and minds of downtown Boston’s startup set. Cambridge Innovation Center, another shared workspace, is also developing a café project on the ground floor of its 60,000-square-foot Boston facility at 50 Milk Street. CIC’s founder and chief executive, Tim Rowe, demurred about a date for its opening.”

The full article details WeWork’s cafe project as well as how it fits in with its larger corporate strategy. You can read it on Bostinno.Streetwise.

1 Greater Boston Co-Working Office Spaces Get Boost

co-working space in Cambridge MA

Credit: BBJ

Co-working won’t change the need for companies to have office, but rather it will bring those that are in home offices and garages into a dynamic environment.

The BBJ is indicating that Bostonians are likely to “see a surge in co-working spaces around Massachusetts thanks to funds made available to residents in select cities across Massachusetts. The spaces, which typically feature a variety of entrepreneurs in shared office space that doesn’t require a long-term lease, have become such a big part of the Greater Boston’s startup scene. But new grants available to entrepreneurs in Massachusetts’ 28 Gateway Cities— from Everett and Worcester to Fall River — aim to spread the concept of co-working spaces beyond Boston, Cambridge and Somerville.”

You can view the full article on the Boston Business Journal, here.

0 Boston Ranks 2nd in Tech Employment, VC Funding

office space on JFK blvd in Cambridge MA

Office building at 30 John F Kennedy Boulevard, Cambridge

The greater Boston market is strong for tech jobs and VC funding into tech company.  When clients as why the rapid rent growth from 2010 to now?  Supply and demand to the absorption by venture backed tech companies.

According to a report in the Boston Business Journal, “Boston with its more than 145,000 tech jobs trails only Silicon Valley in terms of total high-tech employment, noting that Greater Boston experienced a 4.3 percent growth in high-tech jobs over the year. Silicon Valley had year-over-year tech-related job growth of 5.2 percent and employed a little over 213,000 people in the industry, the report noted. But the results aren’t much of a change from last year’s report, which stated that the Boston area was No. 2 in terms of tech jobs and No. 4 in venture funding…The Boston area also scored big in venture funding during the second quarter of this year, accumulating a total of $441.6 million in funding during the time period, according to the report. San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Manhattan all snagged more venture capital funding than the Boston area.”

The full article is available on the BBJ website.

0 Boston Companies Can Now Lease Extra Space to Startups

PivotDesk Boston logoNow you have a place to go!  PivotDesk has solved the problem for the entrepreneur.

From BetaBoston.com:

“PivotDesk, which lets companies lease out extra office space to other startups, has launched a new offering that lets commercial real estate brokers connect with companies that might be too small for their own space with PivotDesk.”

For more info, jump over to PivotDesk.

0 Legal Incubator Launched in Boston Financial District by UMass Dartmouth

university of massachusetts dartmouth logo

Credit: Wikipedia

Did you get a law degree at Dartmouth?  Are you looking for a job?  Are you in need of legal services?  Stop by 274 Franklin Street to learn more.

The Boston Business Journal describes the incubator’s mission:

“The University of Massachusetts School of Law Dartmouth has arrived on Boston’s legal scene, this week debuting a new venture in the Financial District that’s designed like a start-up incubator — but for lawyers to launch their careers…Called Justice Bridge, the center is located in basement space at 274 Franklin St. and it serves two purposes, first by employing graduates of UMass Dartmouth Law School and second by providing reduced-fee legal services for people who cannot afford the full fare of a Boston law firm but are able to pay something.”

0 Boston Suburban Office Parks get Reinvented

Owners and developers across Eastern Massachusetts are seeking to reinvent the suburban office park. In communities such as Waltham, Newton and Needham, developers are adding restaurants, hotels and other amenities to replicate the idea of “live, work, play,” which is an increasing popular attraction in the city. Needham’s soon-to-be largest office tenant, Trip Advisors, will benefit directly from this “live, work, play” attraction.

Wells Avenue office park in Newton, MA

Credit: The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe quantifies the divide between Boston’s urban and suburban landscapes:

“Along Interstate 495, the vacancy rate for Class A offices is hovering at nearly 18 percent, compared with 11.5 percent in Boston and less than 6 percent in Cambridge. Commercial rents are depressed. Offices lease for only $20 per square foot in the region, less than half of what similar space fetches in Boston and Cambridge, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, a commercial real estate firm.”

0 A Look Inside the MassChallenge Workspace (video)

What does today’s innovative office space look like?  Well MassChallenge has moved into their new offices in Jamestown’s building at 21 Drydock in the Seaport area of Boston.  Have a look at cool creative space designed to allows today’s innovators creates tomorrow’s new technology.

 

 

The Boston Business Journal describes the accelerator’s move, “Boston-based startup accelerator MassChallenge has officially moved from One Marina Park Drive to 21 Drydock Avenue, in the Innovation and Design Building. Over 100 startups will work in the new place from June 23, kicking off the fifth MassChallenge accelerator program.”

0 FinTech Program for Burgeoning Boston Financial Services Startups

FinTech startup bootcampEntrepreneurs: do you have an idea focused on the Financial Services sector?  Look no further, Fidelity and Amazon would like to help back fledgling Boston startups through a new program, tagged the Fintech Sandbox.

A Boston Globe editorial highlights the target:

“Fintech entrepreneurs have a unique problem, which is the high cost of data to help them build applications,” said David Jegen, managing director of Devonshire Investors, the private investment arm of the Johnson family, which controls Fidelity. “They raise $2 million of venture capital funding, and then spend $500,000 of it buying market data from Bloomberg or Thomson Reuters. Or they show up to customers, who say, ‘Nice app, but it hasn’t been tested on robust data sets.’ We think that is a problem we can help solve.”