0 Host of Ferries Heading to Boston Harbor

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Wil Catlin

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

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 MassMutual Plots 300,000 SF Office Building on Parcel E

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Wil Catlin

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 Could Track 61 Offer Rail Service throughout the Seaport?

Posted on September 11, 2017 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

Can track 61 save the Seaport from its own success? To be clear, it could help and we could use it.

From the Boston Globe:

Originally a freight line that was part of the industrial rail yards along the South Boston Waterfront, Track 61 has been unused for many years while around it a new neighborhood of glass-walled offices, luxury condos, and hip restaurants has sprung up.

The roughly 1.5-mile spur [that] cuts across the Seaport District from the southwestern edge of South Boston…is coming back to life [to test] new Red Line subway cars that are being built for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Springfield.

The work will include an electrified third rail along Track 61 to power the Red Line cars, a new shed, and other improvements.

0 Seaport Tower Initiates Office Leasing

Posted on March 19, 2017 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Banker and Tradesman

Looking for space in Boston’s Seaport? 121 Seaport Boulevard, being developed by Skanska, is looking for you. The office building will spread 400,000 square-feet, across 17 floors that are virtually column-free.

From Banker and Tradesman:

Promoted as Boston’s first elliptical tower, the design squeezed efficiencies out of its chilled beam heating and cooling system, said David Nagahiro, a principal at CBT. That eliminated the need for a large fan room in the core space on each floor, enabling nearly 86 percent of each floor to be leasable space.

“This is the most efficient floor plate in the city,” Nagahiro said.

0 Harbor Way Key to Seaport Square Development

Posted on February 16, 2017 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

The Seaport has evolved as a live, work and play destination recent years and WS has an interesting spin on, Harbor Way.

From the Boston Globe:

Seaport Square is a 23-acre parcel that stretches from Northern Avenue to Summer Street and represents the last chance for the district to save itself from becoming a sea of generic office and condo buildings and a playground for those who can only afford it.

WS thinks Boston’s answer to Manhattan’s High Line is the Harbor Way, a tree-lined pedestrian promenade that will connect Summer Street to the water’s edge by Fan Pier. The thoroughfare will extend a third of a mile through Seaport Square and hook up with the HarborWalk in an attempt to finally make the Seaport District pedestrian friendly.

0 South Boston Office Space Planned for 105 W. First Street

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Southie is looking to have a new office building at W. First Street totaling 266,000 square feet.

A recent BBJ article notes the South Boston building’s proposal includes “space for a retail, cafe or restaurant; a “convener” space that could host a co-working-style office; and an enclosed pedestrian connector that will connect West Second and West First streets in South Boston.”

More information is supplied in the complete article on the Boston Business Journal’s website, here.

0 Solution Needed for Truck Traffic in Boston Seaport

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Wil Catlin

Traffic in Boston’s Seaport continues to frustrate all that try to navigate the area. Truck traffic continues to increase, but the city is looking to mitigate the congestion with some innovative solutions.

Credit: Boston Herlad

From the Boston Herald:

Container and delivery trucks are rumbling through South Boston and the Seaport 6,000 times a day on average, according to a new Massport survey, rattling the high-priced loft and condo tenants

“A lot of folks moving to the Fort Point area, they weren’t necessarily expecting the volume of trucks,” he said. “That’s the polite way of putting it.”

The state has sought to address that, investing $75 million to build a freight corridor from the terminal to divert container trucks off of nearby West First Street.

0 Rose Kennedy Greenway Realizing Potential

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Growing up, the Central Artery that hosted Interstate 93 was anything but a place to hang out; today it is a vibrant park hosting food trucks, Wifi and people on 15 acres stringing our city together.

According to the Boston Business Journal, “Lawn On D in South Boston, owned and operated by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority…is on track to reach more than $1.2 million in net revenue for 2016. That represents 300 percent growth over revenue of $400,000 generated the year prior…Since 2009, when the Greenway was first opened and some people in Boston were referring to the open space as the “Emptyway,” the Greenway has tracked growth by a number of metrics: food trucks and their patrons; third-party events along the Greenway and their attendees; wireless Internet users; and carousel riders, to name a few.”

More information on the Greenway’s growth is available on the BBJ, here.

0 New Commercial Development Planned at Boston Edison plant in Southie

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Live, work play is coming to an old power plant near you Southie.

According to the BBJ, “The former Boston Edison power plant, a sprawling pink and red-brick behemoth that has long been a South Boston landmark, could be transformed into a ‘live-work-play’ mixed-use project with ‘a broad mix of adaptive re-use and new development.’”

From the Boston vertical of Bizjournals.com:

At last week’s community meeting, Cox and the Boston Edison development team highlighted eight “guiding principles” for the site’s redevelopment potential, including:

Decommission and continue the clean-up of this heavily industrial site so that it is healthy and safe
Take down the walls and fences surrounding the site, and create connections into and through the site, so that it is accessible and inviting to the South Boston neighborhood, and all the way down to the water’s edge
Convert the site to a ‘live/work/play’ mix of uses that fit with the neighborhood.
Preserve and protect the continuing operation of an active, thriving Conley Terminal
Include retail and other uses, and significant public spaces, that will be used by the neighborhood
Preserve some significant building elements, to give the site character and a sense of history
Minimize the use of cars, by providing better transportation alternatives
Make the site green, sustainable and resilient

0 Boston Office Tower Construction Surging

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Banker&Tradesman

They all won’t happen in this cycle, but it will be interesting to watch the Boston skyline evolve as projects come out of the ground.

From Banker & Tradesman:

Three office towers totaling 113 stories and nearly 2.5 million square feet, already bearing the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s stamp of approval, are to be built near the MBTA’s Haymarket, North and South stations.

The transit tower trend ratchets up with Boston Properties’ latest vision of a 1.3-million-square-foot development at Back Bay station, including a 26-story office tower. And the BRA is getting into the high-rise act as it seeks an “iconic” redevelopment up to 700 feet for its defunct Financial District garage at 115 Federal St.