0 Boston Office Vacancy Rate among Lowest in U.S.

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1 Post Office Sq. Boston

Credit: Boston Business Journal

The Boston office market is tight, with vacancy rates among the lowest in the nation; Boston shared the 5th spot nationally with Portland, OR.

The BBJ notes, “the percentage of office space that’s vacant in greater Boston is lower than all but six other major U.S. cities…Boston recorded an 11.9 percent office vacancy rate in the third quarter, down 0.9 percent from the year-ago period, according to the third-quarter office report from commercial real estate research service Reis Inc. That vacancy rate ties Boston with Portland, Oregon as the fifth-lowest in the U.S., behind New York (9.2 percent), Washington, D.C. (9.3 percent), San Francisco (10 percent) and Seattle (10.8 percent).”

You can read more on the Bizjournals website.

0 Back Bay Office Market is Evolving

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Tech office space in Back Bay Boston

Image Credit: BankerandTradesman

Back Bay has options, many options due to the movement and relocation of various large tenants and the opening of 888 Boylston Street by Boston Properties.

From Banker&Tradesman:

You can go back two decades and we’ve never had a spike in vacancy of any sort in the Back Bay,” said Brendan Carroll, director of intelligence for Boston-based Encompass Real Estate Strategy. “Now all of a sudden, we’re starting to see some options.”

As of Sept. 30, Back Bay had the highest availability rate of any Boston submarket, according to Colliers International’s Market Viewpoint report. Including 434,419 square feet of sublease space, some 14.8 percent of the 13.3 million-square-foot inventory is now available.

Other factors include competition from build-to-suit projects such as Boston Properties’ 888 Boylston St. tower, where Natixis will relocate. Wells Fargo and Houghton Mifflin are moving to the Financial District, taking space vacated by tenants that in turn committed to brand-new towers in the sought-after Seaport.

0 Open Floor Plan or Private Offices?

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cool office space with slide

Credit: Bisnow

Open space vs. Private offices – what is your position? Are we, as a workforce, moving away from open plans to the more traditional office? Perhaps our private offices are smaller and more efficient? Is this the end of the ‘Creative Office’ as Bisnow describes:

Dot-com companies in the early ’90s struck gold when they put all their employees in a single room (or more often, garage). Since, the open concept plan has widely replaced office-lined perimeters for execs and a bullpen center for support staff, as furniture vendors continued to develop solutions that aligned with those times. And while some industries (tech, creative, communications) adapted more willingly than others (legal, financial), the design world embraced the idea that humans as social animals needed areas to congregate, collaborate and socialize…And from the open office came the creative office. You know the one…it usually has a slide (like HCSS’s Sugar Land office above), or a gourmet coffee bar with lounge area made from reclaimed wood. Elfreda says open office and creative office are similar, but the creative office is definitely an evolution of the former.

You can read Bisnow’s full article on the evolving office trends, here.

0 Digitas Leases 200,000 RSF at 40 Water St. in Congress Sq.

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Office building at 40 Water Street

Credit: Banker and Tradesman

Digitas is on the move, literally; the ad agency DigitasLBi recently signed a lease at 40 Water Street to lease 200,000 RSF.

According to Banker and Tradesman, Digitas has “been shopping for office space for more than two years, with its 200,000-square-foot lease at 33 Arch St. set to expire in 2017. Related Beal is renovating 40 Water St. to make way for open-format offices topped with a 6-story glass addition and tree-lined roof deck overlooking Post Office Square.”

More information is available on B&T.

0 Boston Old City Hall goes up for Sale

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The Boston Classic, Old City Hall is going up for sale. The building, constructed in 1862, contains 106,508 RSF over 9 stories with a typical floor plate of 11,834 RSF.  Boston’s Old City Hall was home to its city council from 1865 to 1969. It was one of the first buildings in the French Second Empire style to be built in the United States, according to Wikipedia.

Old City Hall Boston

Credit: The Real Reporter

A recent article on The Real Reporter notes, “by some estimates, value of its ground lease that runs to 2069 could eclipse $30 million, or $358 per sf at that starting point. Held by the Boston Planning and Development Agency, aka Boston Redevelopment Authority, the ground lease is controlled by the non-profit Architectural Heritage Foundation. The nine-story, 83,700-sf property whose address is 45 School St. was repositioned in 1972 as a mixed-use property and today is 98 percent leased to 18 office tenants and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, the eatery in where popular French restaurant Maison Robert was a fixture for decades serving Boston’s elite.”

You can read the full Real Reporter article, here.

0 Fort Point Office Space for GE Lands Design Approval

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GE has received design approval for their headquarters in the Seaport. Some of the design elements include a pedestrian corridor and 100-year flood resistance.

Rendering of new office building in Boston Fort Point

Credit: Bizjournals.com

The Boston Business Journal notes, “the headquarters campus will be located on a 2.5-acre campus facing the Fort Point Channel, spanning two historic former Necco candy manufacturing facilities at 5 and 6 Necco Court and a newly built property facing the water. The campus will span 388,700 square feet. GE’s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, has said the company intends to spend between $80 million and $100 million on the new headquarters.”

You can read more on the Fort Point Channel Building on the BBJ’s website, here.

0 New Commercial Development Planned at Boston Edison plant in Southie

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Plant Development in South Boston

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:

  1. Decommission and continue the clean-up of this heavily industrial site so that it is healthy and safe
  2. 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
  3. Convert the site to a ‘live/work/play’ mix of uses that fit with the neighborhood.
  4. Preserve and protect the continuing operation of an active, thriving Conley Terminal
  5. Include retail and other uses, and significant public spaces, that will be used by the neighborhood
  6. Preserve some significant building elements, to give the site character and a sense of history
  7. Minimize the use of cars, by providing better transportation alternatives
  8. Make the site green, sustainable and resilient

 

0 Startups Increasingly Priced Out of Cambridge Real Estate

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Shared Pharma space at Mass Innovation Labs.

Mass Innovation Labs; Image Courtesy of Crains.

Small to mid-sized tenants need to seek the value play by looking along the Red Line corridor in Downtown Crossing, with rents ranging from the high $20’s to mid-$40’s PSF.

A recent Crains.com article notes, “Smaller companies, however, are feeling the squeeze. The problem is more acute for Boston’s booming biopharma industry than for tech companies…More than 96 percent of Cambridge’s 10.24 million square feet of lab space is occupied, according to an analysis by commercial real estate investor Transwestern.”

You can read more on Crains.

0 Kingston Building a Haven for Startups

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Kingston St office space

Credit: Boston Globe

Kingston Street has been a jewel for those tenants seeking a value opportunity with quick access to Downtown Crossing and South Station.

According to the Boston Globe, “Buildings like the Kingston Building ‘really sustain the startup scene,’ says Matt Bellows, chief executive of Yesware, a Boston company that creates software for salespeople. ‘It’s got a great location, nice open space, windows on three sides, and it’s cheap.’ After spending two years in the building, Bellows says, ‘we only moved out when we got over 50 people, and the lines for the two tiny bathrooms became too long.’”

Additional details are included in the full Boston Globe article.

0 South End Office Building Slated for 321 Harrison Ave.

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South End office building on Harrison Street

Credit: Boston Globe

The South End is not known as a large office market with only 13 buildings totaling 928,626 square-feet, according to CoStar; however, a new 11-story office building at 321 Harrison Ave. overlooking the Massachusetts Turnpike was recently approved.

From the Boston Globe:

The $80 million project, to be built by Burlington-based Nordblom Development Co. and New York-based investment firm Rubenstein Partners, would be the first new office building in a section of the South End that has seen a flood of housing development in recent years — more than 1,000 apartments and condos within a few blocks.

The mid-rise, with 230,000 square feet of office space on eight floors above a three-story garage, would stand alongside and share a lobby with an existing office building next door at 1000 Washington St. that houses state agencies.