0 Sonos Joins other Boston Tech Companies in Move to Downtown Crossing

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Lafayette center in Downtown Crossing

Credit: LafayetteCCboston.com

Where are hip technology companies signing new leases?  DTX, Downtown Crossing!  Why?  It is a great value option with T access from Green, Orange, Red and Blue lines.

From the Boston Globe:

Instead of expanding in Kendall Square with the Googles and Amazons of the world, Sonos recently signed a lease to move into 170,000 square feet in Lafayette City Center, a downtown Boston office complex that long served as back-office space for State Street Corp.

“Once we saw Lafayette, it was clear to me that it was the best place for us,” said Andrew Schulert, vice president of quality at Sonos, which employs 375 people.

What Schulert saw was a resurgent real estate market in Downtown Crossing, where hip technology companies are joining new retail shops, restaurants, and upscale residential buildings. The interest among tech firms has benefited downtown landlords who are trying to replace dated department stores and other tenants that have left the area.

0 WeWork Plans Café Across from South Station in Boston

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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.

0 Downtown Crossing Farmers’ Market: Roche Bros. Can’t Wait

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Roche Bros. farmers market in downtown crossing

Credit: Boston Business Journal

The newest tenant to downtown crossing has opened, kinda, even though their space isn’t ready yet.  Looking for fresh fruit an vegetables, stop by daily from 10 AM to 6 PM!

Roche Bros. to set up a farmers’ market outside of its coming Downtown Crossing location to introduce itself to the neighborhood until the store officially opens in early Spring, 2015.

According to a news release today, printed in the BBJ, “the grocer is setting up five fresh produce stands outside the historic Millennium Tower/Burnham Building where construction is currently underway on the company’s 25,000 square-foot flagship supermarket. The open-air offerings are scheduled to operate seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The produce stands will primarily feature fresh fruits, as well as some vegetables, flowers, and seasonal baked goods. The Roche Bros. team will keep the stands open through October.”

You can read the complete statement and related article on the Boston Business Journal’s website.

0 Boston Companies Face Shortage of Developer, Engineering Talent

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office building in technology square in Boston

300 Technology Square, Cambridge

Are you looking to hire web developers are part of your growth into new office space?  If yes prepare for some competition.  Employers are thinking beyond just salary when it comes to new hires some items that hit the list are:

  • Location, Location, Location
  • Being centrally located Downtown with easy access to commuter rail is top priority
  • Catered food services for all meals
  • Concierge for daily tasks such as meeting the Cable Guy at home.
  • Cool, fun and innovative office environment
  • Health Wellness program – Health club membership

According to the BBJ, “Companies are increasingly trying to make it more attractive for these Web experts to stay at firms. “When these guys are on the market there’s so much demand for them that they’re getting snapped up within a day or two.”

What are you offering and how does it stack up?

0 Storage Space in 2018? 79% of Your Virtual Traffic will be Video

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logo for Cisco systems

Credit: Cisco

When you are thinking about new office space, one thing you don’t have to consider: can your proposed building accommodate the storage demands of your future internet traffic?

Cisco estimates that “video traffic will make up 79 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2018.” How are server costs going to adapt to fit this? Cisco’s one to know.

0 Office Buildings Planned Near Faneuil Hall

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rendering of office space on Quaker Lane in Boston

Credit: The Boston Globe

Quaker Lane in Boston?  Must admit, some would have no idea where it is located.  Well, changes are coming.  This road is surrounded by the former Fidelity headquarters that was sold and is located near the intersection of Congress and State Streets.  The proposed plan is to add retail services on the ground for, renovate the offices above and add residential component.

From the Boston Globe:

“A Boston real estate firm is proposing to redevelop a drab cluster of office buildings near Faneuil Hall into a more modern commercial complex with restaurants, stores, hotel rooms, and residences.”

“Our plan is to rejuvenate the entire block through a mixed-use redevelopment strategy,” said Stephen Faber, executive vice president of Related Beal. “These buildings and this location present us with the opportunity to . . . create a real destination.”

0 Boston Office Towers Experiencing Strong Leasing Activity

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Internation place in Boston

One International Place in Boston

Some of Boston’s largest office towers have experienced strong leasing activity in either attracting new tenants or renewing their existing ones.  Some building highlight are the following commercial spaces:

·         One Financial Center – Owned by Beacon Capital
·         One Federal Street – Owned by Tishman Speyer
·         International Place – Owned by The Chiofaro Company
·         John Hancock, 200 Clarendon Street – Owned by Boston Properties

“A Boston Business Journal analysis of some of the largest towers in the city shows that many are enjoying their highest occupancy rates in years, although the good times haven’t come easy. Financial filings indicate these landlords have been working on overdrive to keep their properties filled, with many having to thread some impressive needles in order to head off or counter major lease expirations before they bite.”

You can view the BBJ’s status update “based on recent loan-servicer filings, on some of the biggest office properties in Boston’s downtown market,” here.

1 Greater Boston Co-Working Office Spaces Get Boost

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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 Transportation Startup Bridj Nets $4M in Outside Funding

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Transportation start-up in Boston

Credit: Bridj

Are you tired of seeing full busses drive past you every morning?  Well, Bridj is looking to solve that for you and they just landed an addition $4m along with the former commissioner of Chicago Transportation Department.

From Bizjournals.com:

Bridj launched beta service this past June in the Boston area and its CEO has previously said that it would add more cities in the future…The startup said the new funding and the addition of Klein will allow Bridj to expand nationally and beyond. Other investors in the latest round include Andy Ross andPeter Aldrich, early Zipcar investors.

Alternatively, follow the link to view Bridj’s Boston schedule.

0 Boston Ranks 2nd in Tech Employment, VC Funding

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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.