Credit: BBJ
Your phone provider could be your new office landlord. Verizon is dipping into the market by converting former telecommunication space to office space and partnering with Alley to run it.
From Bizjournals.com:
“Alley, powered by Verizon,” the new membership-only, 10,000-square-foot space in Cambridge is scheduled to open at the end of June at 10 Ware St. The facility served as a central office for Verizon (NYSE: VZ) that previously housed network and telecommunications equipment.
In short, the Office market in greater Boston has rents continuing to surge upward with fewer available options. Kendall Square and select Cambridge neighborhoods lead the charge, with rents up 76% since 2010.
Credit: The Real Reporter
From The Real Reporter:
Kendall has enjoyed the most dramatic surge in rents during the present economic boom, currently going into its seventh year, as local rents bottomed out in 2010 following the mortgage recession. Other areas benefitting from current dynamics include most urban areas as well as the Western suburbs, including 9 West, buoyed by changes in Needham.
Vacancy remains at very low levels as 49,000 sf of positive absorption was balanced with 66,000 sf of new property completions, resulting in a slight vacancy uptick of 0.1 percent, to 5.5 percent.
One Broadway in Kendall Square (click for property details)
Fewer options exist on the Boston office market, and what is available is more expensive then previous quarters. Combined with fewer concessions offered by landlords, local tenants are feeling the pinch.
From the Boston Globe:
Boston’s office market is hopping, according to reports issued by real estate brokerages Transwestern and Jones Lang LaSalle. Driven by strong employment gains and growing companies in need of additional space, rents are rising all across Greater Boston, up 7.6 percent in the last 12 months. Throughout Cambridge, there are just three vacant office spaces of 20,000 square feet or more on the market, and rents in Kendall Square are averaging above $70 per square foot. Along Route 128, vacancy rates are at record lows, while office rents along Interstate 495 are at seven-year highs.
Boston office rents continue to rise, and are expected to climb through 2017. What can you do to hedge your risk against leasing in the top of the market? Understand what you need and engage an advisor.
The BBJ notes, “Boston can expect its asking rental rate increase to average 10.1 percent per year during that timeframe…The office market in Boston’s central business district averaged a $46.60 per-square-foot rental rate last year…[with estimates for] those rates to increase to $52.83 by 2015, $59.48 by 2016 and $62.09 by 2017.”
You can read the complete article on the Boston Business Journal, here.