Boston Office Space for Lease and Rent | BostonOfficeSpaces.com

0 Dartmouth Street Office Building in Back Bay Nets $849 per Sq. Ft.

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

$849 per square foot was the trade price of 131 Dartmouth Street in Boston’s Back Bay.

According to the BBJ, “Boston-based real estate investment firm TA Associates Realty is set to acquire 131 Dartmouth St. in Boston’s Back Bay for $315 million…[offering] a long building with large floor plates spanning 371,000 square feet, with a below-grade parking deck at an enviable 2-per-1,000 square feet parking spot ratio. The 12-story building is adjacent to Back Bay Station and located across Dartmouth Street from retail center Copley Place.”

There are 11 Class A office buildings in Boston with floorplates greater than 50,000 square feet, 131 Dartmouth is the 8th largest with 55,363 square foot floorplates:

Building Address	Submarket Name	City	Year Built	Number Of Stories	Rentable Building Area	Typical Floor Size
200 Seaport Blvd	Seaport	Boston	1920	3	804,000.00	268,000.00
401 Park Dr	Brighton/Allston/Fenway	Boston	1928	14	950,000.00	98,573.00
480 William F McClellan Hwy	Charlestown/East Boston	Boston	2006	4	140,000.00	85,091.00
24 New Chardon St	North Station/Beacon Hill	Boston	2000	4	295,318.00	73,829.00
245 Summer St	Financial District	Boston	1974	14	891,814.00	63,701.00
501 Boylston St	Back Bay	Boston	1940	10	607,685.00	60,768.00
197 Clarendon St	Back Bay	Boston	1922	8	448,796.00	56,000.00
131 Dartmouth St	Back Bay	Boston	2002	11	371,016.00	55,363.00
1 Boston Medical Center Pl	South End	Boston	1980		228,257.00	55,000.00
1622-1636 Tremont St	Roxbury/Dorchester	Boston	2003	4	193,000.00	53,404.00
222 Berkeley St	Back Bay	Boston	1991	22	524,195.00	51,655.00

0 Former Hancock Tower Mortgage gets Paid Off

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Banker and Tradesman

Refinance is a hot topic for homeowners and office tower owners. Boston Properties is addressing all their debt that matures in the next two years.

From Banker&Tradesman:

Boston Properties has spent $667.4 million to retire the mortgage on 200 Clarendon in Boston, the 62-story Back Bay landmark previously known as the Hancock Tower…The loan had an outstanding principal balance of $640.5 million at a 5.68 percent fixed rate and was scheduled to mature in January 2017, according to a press release. Boston Properties paid $667.4 million to buy U.S. government securities that will generate cash flow to pay off the loan in October 2016, the company said. The mortgage and liens on the property have been extinguished, Boston Properties said…Boston Properties’ strategy is to pay off or refinance debt that matures in the next two years at above-market rates.

Related Office Space for Lease
Back Bay office space for lease

0 Babson College Readies Downtown Boston Co-Working Space

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Babson College will be offering a shared co-working drop in center at 100 High Street in the Financial District of Boston. Kerry Healey, Babson President, comments that nearly half of the 16,000 graduates live or work in greater Boston.

This is the first of its kind where higher education is offering a retail presence rather than just a club experience on an upper floor.

According to the Boston Business Journal, “the Wellesley college known for its success preparing entrepreneurs is leasing 9,000 square feet at 100 High St., including 2,000 square feet of ground floor space fronting on the Federal Street side of the building, in the Financial District. Graduate business students will be able to take classes at the site and alumni will be able to work in a co-working setting…The location, scheduled to open before fall 2016, will more than double Babson’s space in Boston.”

You can read the full article on the BBJ’s local website.

0 Eight Proposals Compete for Winthrop Square in Boston

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Wil Catlin

proposed buildings in Winthrop Square in Boston's financial district

Credit: Curbed Boston

According to Curbed, plans to plunk one of Boston’s biggest real estate developments in living memory on the squat Winthrop Square Garage took a big step forward on Wednesday, with the city transferring garage ownership to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The agency will now set about in earnest choosing a developer for the project” from the following eight proposals – click through to Curbed Boston to read more about each submission:

Millennium Partners
Thomas O’Brien
Accordia Partners
Hudson Group North America
Trinity Acquisitions
The Fallon Co.
Steven Belkin of Trans National Properties
Lincoln Property Co.

0 Dorchester Avenue Eyed for Development

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Globe

Dot Ave is on the move in the city with the BRA signaling a change in zoning. According to public record Dot Ave has:

363 Parcels
$3,675,133 is tax revenue

According to the Boston Globe, “the Boston Redevelopment Authority is circulating sketches of what a stretch of the street lined by low-rise warehouses and staging yards would look like as a corridor of retail and apartment buildings, some as tall as 300 feet. There would be parks laced throughout, with better sidewalks and 12 blocks of new streets added in back toward the South Bay Rail Yard…zoning plans are the clearest progress yet after months of community meetings to rezone the Dorchester Ave. corridor…The plan would radically remake a three-quarter-mile-long, light industrial area north of the Andrew MBTA station into a walkable, transit-accessible hub of new housing, with green space and pleasant storefronts.”

You can read more on the proposed Dorchester Avenue development on the Boston Globe.

0 Boston Restaurants Launch Waterfront Shipping Containers

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston.com

Some Boston restaurants are moving away from brick and mortar and migration to shipping containers. Jamestown’s Drydock facility is home to many of these new venues.

From Boston.com:

The term sheet for the Boston project says the company [Mei Mei] will lease up to eight custom-built shipping container kiosks. It’s all part of $100 million in upgrades to the The Innovation and Design Building as a whole, according to the building’s…other companies moving into containers include Niche Urban Garden Supply, Drydock Exchange, and the hair salon Cut-Splice. The kiosks will be open year-round and the space will offer indoor and outdoor seating.

0 Boston Office Market Trends: 2010-2015

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Wil Catlin

If your company signed an office lease during the Great Recession chances are your rents are looking pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Office space in Boston is growing increasingly more expensive. So much so current asking rents are at some of the highest they have ever been. The top floors of the Prudential building are asking $90 per rentable square foot…$90!

Boston Office Market Trends

The urban leasing team at Boston Realty Advisors wanted to know how much has changed in the last five years across all of Greater Boston’s major neighborhoods: East Cambridge, Seaport, Financial District, Back Bay, North Station. They included image break downs of each market on asking rental rates and vacancy rates for the top tier buildings (Class A) and the middle market buildings (Class B). The facts are astounding!

If your company’s lease is expiring in the next 12-24 months chances are the second fixed expense on your balance sheet next to payroll will be increasing if you wish to renew. Now is the time to engage your real estate team on how the current market dynamics will impact the company’s short and long terms plans for office space, the company’s bottom line, and how your company uses its current space. Knowing the options, risks, and opportunities in the current real estate climate is the best hedge against a rising market. Its starts with being proactive. Time can be your best leverage but quickly your worst enemy when it is running out.

Robert LeClair is Managing Director and Partner at Boston Realty Advisors having handled hundreds of lease transactions for clients in Greater Boston for over the last 10yrs.

Click here to download the full PDF: Boston Office Market Trends 2010-2015

0 Modifications and Atrium Planned for 100 Federal Street

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Herald

More glass is proposed to head to Boston’s Financial District, with a new atrium planned for 100 Federal Street along with retail and restaurant space.

Boston Properties purchased 100 Federal Street on March 13th 2012 for $610M
The building consists of 1,323,000 RSF in 40 Stories with the average floor plate of 28,000 RSF
26 Elevators with 2 being freight
The building was built in 1971

From the Boston Herald:

The designs also indicate plans to convert 69,845 square feet of basement space into parking at the 41-story Financial District tower known as the “pregnant building.”  “We are pleased to be working with the city to transform the plaza outside 100 Federal St. into an enclosed and vital gathering space for the downtown community,” said Bryan Koop, Boston Properties’ senior vice president and regional manager. “The weather-protected atrium … is planned to complement the outdoor space at Post Office Square Park and will be programmed with restaurants and events to bring a more active and lively streetscape to the base of the tower.”  Current designs include 8,500 square feet of retail, 500 square feet for kiosks and an 8,990-square-foot winter garden in an angled atrium with a glass facade.

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 Greater Boston Commute Time vs Price per Square Foot

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Commute times on public transportation versus diving can vary greatly if you depart at the exact time into Boston. Commuters that depart early regardless of public or private can reduce their commuting time. I live west of Boston and ride in on the Pike, if I hit the Weston tolls by 6:05 AM my ride door to door is 26 minutes. If I hit the tolls by 8:15 I can plan on an hour +/-.

Credit: NeighborhoodX

According to a Boston.com article, “Constantine Valhouli, the cofounder of NeighborhoodX, a neighborhood-specific reporting and data startup, compiled the commuting information by measuring the time it takes to get from each town to North Station. He found each of the commute times via a Google query between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and used the longest of the available transportation options, to get a more conservative estimate. Hoping to understand the relationship between location and price, Valhouli found there are places in Boston that often get overlooked…Some places he mentioned were Chelsea, which held the second fastest commute time to North Station behind the North End, at 14 minutes, Quincy at 21 minutes, and Revere at 26 minutes. was built between 1802 and 1804 and was designed by Boston’s famous architect, Charles Bulfinch. It is now called St. Stephen’s Church.”

You can read the full article on Boston.com.