0 Boston to Limit Office Tower Signs

office building of PwC in downtown Boston

Credit: Boston Globe

To get you companies name in lights on a building in Boston will now be a formalized policy according to the BRA.  Personally I am a fan of fewer signs rather than seeing our rooftops littered with every brand that occupies our city.

According to a Boston Globe article, “The Boston Redevelopment Authority is working on a new sign policy, one that would formalize by early next year the agency’s often-informal approach, just as Boston’s building boom could bring another round of requests for prominent corporate signage.”

More from the Globe:

“Quite often, when you go to other cities, you’ll see corporate names on top of buildings,” said David Carlson, the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s deputy director for urban design. “The general preference [here] is to not have a skyline dominated by corporate signs and instead to have a skyline that’s dominated by hopefully interesting buildings.”

0 Sales of New Boston Office Towers to Boost Rent Prices

Office space for rent in Boston

Credit: Banker&Tradesman

Office rents will continue to rise and I expect this to continue through 2015 and into 2016.  The buyers of the recent office buildings will be looking for their return on investment and that will come from increasing the price per foot they charge tenants.

Banker & Tradesman reports the stage was set “for the big rent hikes to come has been a frenzy of office tower sales in the Financial District, Back Bay and Seaport over the last six months…More than 5.5 million square feet of office tower space changed hands or has been placed under contract between July and September, Collins and Regensburg note in a piece for the New England Real Estate Journal. Another 4 million square feet has hit the market or is about to.”

Additional details on the new office towers and projected office rent rates is available on Banker&Tradesman’s website, here.

0 More Office Towers Wanted in Boston

The Boston office market needs more towers to accommodate the forecasted future growth and tenant demands of strong infrastructure with abundant amenities.  Tower’s no longer solely focus on traditional tenants, now prospective tenants range technology firms to ecommerce.

office towers in Boston

Credit: Wikipedia

Cathy Thompson, Executive vp at DTZ, discussed in an interview with the BBJ the notion that Boston is still very much a landlord’s market:

“In the Back Bay and Seaport submarkets, vacancies in the Class A towers are in the low single digits. Some the spaces in the upper floors in the Back Bay towers are commanding rents in the $80s (per square foot). In the Seaport, the top rents are in the low $60s in the new spaces. There’s a flight to quality, an upgrading of space. Landlords are taking advantage of the fact that there isn’t much high quality space available right now for blocks of space above 75,000 square feet.”

The full interview with Ms. Thompson is available on the Boston Business Journal’s website.