0 Boston Real Estate Continues to Battle Height Restrictions

Tallest office buildings in Boston

Credit: Boston Globe

The city of Boston will no doubt entertain towers that exceed the 790-feet of 200 Clarendon Street, formerly known as the John Hancock Tower.

The location of Boston’s next tallest tower will most likely fall in the Back Bay neighborhood. This is due to the restriction imposed by the FAA from the Seaport and Financial District, as well as the shadow effect on Boston Common in the Mid-Town area.

According to the Boston Globe, “many Bostonians have come to love the relatively modest scale of the city’s neighborhoods. That affection surfaces every time someone proposes a building of substantial height. Invariably, issues like shadows and wind are raised.

‘Our neighborhoods, from the North End to the Back Bay to the South End, are full of people who love living in what appears to be a 19th-century community,” said Robert Brown, managing director at architecture firm Perkins+Will. “To them, tall buildings mean more density, more parking, more shadow.’”

Related Real Estate
Back Bay Office Space for Lease
• Boston Financial District Real Estate

0 Boston Skyline is Slated for Change

The Boston Skyline is on track to change by 2020.  It will introduce some new players to the top ten and maintain some existing ones.

Curbed just posted a map of the 10 tallest buildings it expects to stand over Boston in 2020:

Boston office towers in 2020

Credit: Curbed

  1. 200 Clarendon
  2. Winthrop Square Tower
  3. Prudential Center Tower
  4. Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences One Dalton Street
  5. Millennium Tower
  6. South Station Tower
  7. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
  8. One Boston Place
  9. One International Place
  10. Boston Harbor Garage tower

You can read more about the 10 buildings on Curbed, Boston.

0 Hancock Tower Remains Largely Unoccupied

Hancock Tower in back bay

Credit: Boston Globe

New England’s tallest building has space for you. The tower has approximately 450,000 square feet available for lease.

From the Boston Globe:

About one-fourth of the space in 200 Clarendon — or what most of us still call the John Hancock Tower — is sitting vacant after leases expired and tenants such as John Hancock moved to new digs. Landlord Boston Properties Inc. acknowledged Wednesday that efforts to fill it have been going “a little bit slow.”

Rents at the top of the tower run $70 to $80 per square foot — among the priciest in town. Boston Properties has given no sign it plans to offer discounts to fill 450,000 vacant square feet. Still, the slowdown reflects a bit of a softening at the very top of Boston’s market. Real estate brokers say law firms, financiers, and others who seek trophy office space are pushing back against building owners who want to hike rents.

You can read the full Globe article, here.

0 Curbed Lists ’10 Buildings That Tell the Story of Boston’

200 clarendon st. back bay

Credit: 200clarendon.com

For those history buffs of Boston buildings and architecture here is the top 10, according to Curbed Boston.

1. Faneuil Hall
1 Faneuil Hall Sq
Boston, MA 02109

2. Massachusetts State House
1 Ashburton Pl
Boston, MA 02108

3. Park Street Station
Park St.
Boston, MA 02108

4. The First Triple-Decker
10 Crowell St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124

5. The Custom House Tower
3 McKinley Sq.
Boston, MA 02109

6. The Pru
800 Boylston St.
Boston, MA 02199

7. City Hall
1 City Hall Sq.
Boston, MA 02201

8. Logan Air Traffic Control Tower
Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
Boston, MA 02128

9. 200 Clarendon
200 Clarendon St.
Boston, MA 02116

10. The Ritz-Carlton Residences
10 Avery St
.
Boston, MA 02111

0 Boston’s Projected Skyline in 2020

office space at Prudential center

Credit: Curbed Boston

The Boston Skyline is expect to change by 2020 and here’s what it might look like. The interesting part of this is 3 of the top 10 are residential, where is years past the top 10 have always been office.

Curbed, Boston recently published a projected list of the 10 tallest buildings in 2020, including the following three:

  • 200 Clarendon
  • Winthrop Square Tower
  • Prudential Center Tower

You can find the full list on Curbed Boston

0 Back Bay Station Eyed for 1.4M Sq Ft. Mixed-use Development

165 Dartmouth Street retail space in Boston

Credit: Zillow

Back Bay Station is poised to become a destination location according to proposed plans by Boston Properties.

A recent BBJ article indicates the 1.4-million-square-foot mixed-use development is planned just above Back Bay Station and an adjacent parking garage at 165 Dartmouth St.

From the Boston Business Journal report:

“Boston Properties will invest significant capital into the 1970s-era garage and the station, resulting in a transit-oriented development which will integrate the project, the garage and the station into the Back Bay and surrounding neighborhoods.”

You can read more on the Boston Business Journal.