0 ‘First’ Boston Office Skyscraper gets New Owner

Ames building court street in Boston

Credit: Wikipedia

The Ames Building at 1 Court Street will be getting a new owner. The building is known as the Boston’s “first skyscraper”.

From Wikipedia:

The Ames Building is a skyscraper located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes ranked as the tallest building in Boston from its completion in 1893 until 1915, when the Custom House Tower was built. However, the building was never the tallest structure in Boston. The steeple of the Church of the Covenant, completed in 1867, was much taller than the Ames Building. Nevertheless, it is considered to be Boston’s first skyscraper.

Located at 1 Court Street and Washington Mall in downtown Boston, the Ames Building was designed by the architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge inRichardsonian Romanesque and paid for by Frederick L. Ames. It is the second tallest masonry load bearing-wall structure in the world, exceeded only by the Monadnock Building in Chicago, completed that same year.[2] It is thirteen stories high with a three-story granite base and sandstone and brick. The sandstone is from the Berea formation in Ohio and was supplied by Cleveland Quarries Company. Construction was completed in 1889, but interior work was not completed for occupancy until 1893. It became the corporate headquarters for the Ames families’ agricultural tool company.[3]

The Ames Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 26, 1974.

0 Cambridge Street Tower Nets Close to $50m for the Commonwealth

 

office space in boston at 100 Cambridge Street

Click on the image to view property details on 100 Cambridge Street in Boston

100 Cambridge Street is under agreement to be sold by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Boston Globe published details on the sale, noting  “MassDevelopment has found a buyer for its ground lease at 100 Cambridge St…Mark Sternman, a spokesman for MassDevelopment, declined to disclose the total sale price or the buyer, citing the fact that the deal has not yet been completed. He said the fully occupied tower includes 565,000 square feet of office space and 35,000 square feet of retail space…MassDevelopment redeveloped the tower and reopened it in 2004. The agency regularly received more than $20 million a year in lease revenue from the tower, reporting nearly $23 million for 2013.”

100 Cambridge Street Building Specs
• RBA:  565,157 SF
• Office:  530,618
• Retail:  34,539
• Stories:  22
• Typical Floor:  25,255
• Year Built:  1965
• Year Renovated:  2004

Partial Tenant List
• Ac Ppa Holdings, Llc
• Advance Auto Detailing
• American Student Assistance-Financial
• Barron & Stadfeld, P.C.
• Bright Horizons Family Solutions
• Brooks Pharmacy
• Cannon Designmove
• Citibank Llc
• Department of Revenue
• Dewey Square Group
• Dunkin Donuts
• ECG Management Consultants, Inc
• Energy and Environmental Affairs
• Mass General Hospital Corp
• Life Solutions Group
• Masiphumelele Corporation
• Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
• Miller Wachman LLP
• Penn Mutual Life Insurance
• Prince Lobel Tye LLP
• Rite Aid

 

0 New Office Tower Proposed for Boston Financial District

The skyline in Boston is getting some more airtime in Boston Financial District.  The parcel of late is the shuttered garage between Federal Street and Devonshire Street.

boston skyline

Credit: cognoscenti.wbur.org

According to Wbur.org, “entrepreneur Steve Belkin is again pushing a bold proposal for a new skyscraper in Boston’s Financial District. Somewhat more modest than previous designs, the still impressive building would stand 740 feet tall and feature a hotel, shopping venues, office space and, if permitted, 150 new condominiums.”

Details on the proposed tower in Boston’s Financial District are available on wbur.org.

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.