Tag Archives: Boston office buildings

0 Reebok Moves HQ from Canton to Boston

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Canon office building for Reebok

Credit: Boston Globe

Another major corporate tenant is on the move to Boston. Reebok will surrender is corporate campus life in Canton for a vibrant urban feel.

From the Boston Globe:

Reebok, the athletic shoe and apparel company, plans to shift about 700 employees from Canton to a new headquarters in the city…Reebok president Matt O’Toole said the company is still reviewing a few sites in Boston, all in existing buildings and accessible to southern suburbs and mass transit.

O’Toole cited two reasons for the move. Adidas wants to “clarify the roles” of its offices in the United States. And Reebok wants to be in a vibrant urban area where millennials are eager to work and live. The average age of Reebok employees in Canton is under 30, and many live in Boston already, he said.

 

0 Developers Move to Luxury to Offset Escalating Labor Cost

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Construction laborers work on an office building in Boston

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Due to the great recession we have fewer skilled labor working in the construction trade industry and as a result that cost has increased significantly. On a sampling of construction projects, the cost of labor could account for 40 – 60 percent of the overall project cost.

According to Bizjournals, “the result is a shortage in the supply of skilled labor in the building trades, a trend that’s enabled everyone from mechanical contractors to steel manufacturers to punch their ticket when it comes to selecting the most attractive jobs at the most competitive rates. That in turn is turbo-charging the cost of construction and, in turn, a preference among developers to favor big, luxury projects to better recoup their costs and lock in attractive returns.”

Additional information is available on the BBJ’s website.

0 Prime Boston Office Rents Up Nearly 300% in Past 15 Years

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boston signage for office buildings

Credit: Boston Globe

The city of Boston continues to expand by building more residential and office buildings in areas once thought too far from the mainstream. Industrial and flex users have felt that impact along with office tenants that occupied old industrial buildings that have gone through complete renovations. $12 PSF office rents in the Boston Wharf portfolio from 15 years ago are now in the upper $40’s PSF.

From the Boston Globe:

Yet as real estate prices surge and development pushes into places that were long neglected, the pressures are rising on industrial space all over the city. Boston has just 3.6 square miles of land zoned for industrial use, less seemingly every week. Two prominent properties in the South End, for example, Quinzani’s Bakery on Harrison Avenue and the Flower Exchange on Albany Street, are being sold to developers.

“Not everybody works for Fidelity or Vertex,” said Michael Vaughan, a development consultant who is helping the food wholesalers in Widett Circle negotiate a potential move. “This is how people earn a good living and stay in the city of Boston. The challenge is how do you make sure there’s room for them in a very land-poor city.”