The commercial real estate market in the Greater Boston area continued its torrid pace in the first half of 2017. All sections of the commercial real estate market inside Route 128 are white hot, especially after the announcement that General Electric will move its corporate headquarters to the Seaport District. Recent data indicates that Boston has one of the hottest economies in the United States and ranks as one of the top economies in the world. The 2017 Investment Intensity Index ranks Boston as the fourth market in the U.S. and 14th in the world for commercial real estate investment. In the industrial sector, which includes warehouse/distribution and flex/R&D product, vacancies are at the lowest point seen in decades. At the end of the first quarter the vacancy rate decreased to 5.7 percent. Net absorption totaled 2.24 million square feet for the quarter. The fact that the urban industrial market is continually shrinking as aging industrial properties are redeveloped into “higher and better uses” has caused a tremendous displacement of companies from inside Route 128 to areas outside the coveted Route 95 corridor. A dearth of available institutional-quality industrial product exists in today’s market with just over 13 percent of …
Despite the maturing commercial real estate cycle, Boston’s thriving economy continues to generate positive momentum for the metro’s multifamily property marketplace. Over the 12-month period ending June 30, 2017, area employers added 55,700 positions, growing the employment base by 2.1 percent. Job creation was driven by the typically high-wage healthcare and professional fields, and more than 30 percent of the new roles created were in office-using sectors. This healthy growth has supported a surge in household formation, which — along with the high cost of homeownership — is sustaining substantial demand for rental units. The significant affordability gap between renting and homeownership favors renting over homeownership by $591 per month. This, in combination with rising office-using employment, continues to boost apartment demand, which will support this year’s robust construction pipeline. Developers are on track to deliver more than 9,500 units to the marketplace in 2017, marking the highest point of the current cycle. Builders have focused their efforts in the urban core, particularly in the Fenway, Brookline and Brighton submarkets, and in first-ring suburbs. Nearly two-thirds of incoming units will be inside the city limits or in the closest suburban markets like Cambridge and Revere. The two largest deliveries each …
The Financial District, Back Bay, and Seaport continue to experience strong tenant demand with a vacancy of 10.3 percent and continued rent appreciation. The Seaport, which has experienced tremendous growth for the last four years, received national attention with GE committing to move its corporate headquarters to the market and continues to make headlines with Amazon committing to 150,000 square feet. In addition, 121 Seaport Boulevard just leased to PTC (250,000 square feet) and Alexion (150,000 square feet). One of the biggest trends throughout Boston continues to be the popularity of the Class B buildings. Most people think of Cambridge as one of the premier lab markets in the world. Cambridge has the lowest office vacancy of all the submarkets in Greater Boston at 4.2 percent, making it one of the strongest office markets in the country. Even pre-leasing is strong, with Alexandria Real Estate receiving commitments for all 431,000 square feet at 100 Binney Street, signing Facebook and Bristol-Meyers Squibb as the lead tenants. Space is so tight that, even when you include sublet space, a tenant looking for more than 50,000 square feet only has four options in the submarket. Top Class A product is now achieving rents …
BOSTON — Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. (AAC) has purchased South Station, a Boston transportation hub known as “the gateway to New England,” for an undisclosed sum. AAC will assume the 98-year leasehold for the transit station’s concourse and upstairs office space. The South Station Train Terminal is part of the Michael S. Dukakis South Station Transportation Center, Boston’s busiest transit hub. Opened in 1898, the historic train terminal now serves thousands of commuters, travelers, shoppers and diners daily. Amtrak, MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) rapid transit and MBTA commuter rail all serve the station. Regional coach services are available in the adjacent South Station Bus Terminal Building. The building is recognizable due to its exterior clock and neo-classical revival architecture. South Station also contains more than 59,000 square feet of retail space, including quick-service food options like McDonald’s, Auntie Anne’s, Au Bon Pain, Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and Pret, among others. These options join other retailers at South Station, including CVS/pharmacy, Barbara’s Bookstores, Bank of America and Citizens Bank. AAC has also operated Boston’s famed Faneuil Hall Marketplace for the past six years. That property is currently undergoing a renovation that will upgrade its design and appearance. “It is fitting that AAC …
BOSTON — Bell Partners has purchased the 196-unit Olmsted Place apartment complex in the Boston submarket of Jamaica Plain for $103 million. The community is located at 161 S. Huntington Ave. Olmsted Place debuted in 2015. It is fully leased. The community overlooks Jamaica Pond, part of the Emerald Necklace park system designed by legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The seller was a joint venture between Boston Residential Group and the Carlyle Group. The JV purchased the site in 2012 for $10 million from Home for Little Wanderers, a nonprofit, then completed the development. “We are thrilled to have created a win for our partnership and for the City of Boston by creating middle-class housing in a community that has long needed it,” says Curtis Kemeny, CEO of Boston Residential Group. Olmsted Place features studios to three-bedroom units. The units range in size from 530 square feet to 1,300 square feet. The community was the first new residential project for several decades in a rapidly improving section of Jamaica Plain. Boston Residential Group is a residential developer with projects in Boston submarkets such as Back Bay, South Boston and the Charlestown Navy Yard. The Carlyle Group is a Washington, …
SOMERVILLE, MASS. — The Somerville Board of Aldermen approved rezoning to allow the city to move forward on a proposed $1 billion, 2.3 million-square-foot Union Square redevelopment project. Somervile is situated just northeast of Boston, adjacent to Cambridge. The new mixed-use project would include 1.3 million square feet of new office and civic spaces, along with 2.5 acres of public and open spaces. City officials expect the project will create more than 5,000 new permanent jobs. The development will also provide housing, with 20 percent of the supply dedicated to low-income families. In conjunction with the redevelopment, Somerville is working on a $2.3 billion Green Line extension, which would connect Union Square with surrounding neighborhoods and Boston through the train system. The Union Square Station Associates (US2) is the City of Somerville’s master developer partner on the project. The association will make a $5.5 million public benefits contribution toward the Green Line project. “Union Square’s proximity to Kendall Square, MIT and Harvard — one the densest innovation centers in the world — makes it poised for the next wave of economic growth,” says Greg Karczewski, president of US2. “We’re bringing 2.3 million square feet of new mixed-use, transit-oriented development to …
BOSTON — Oxford Properties Group has provided a $180 million loan for the refinancing of One Congress Street and the Government Center Garage in Boston. The 11-story, mixed-use asset includes a 1,960-space parking garage with 202,854 square feet of office space and 23,212 square feet of retail space. The borrower was a joint venture between National Real Estate Advisors LLC and its Boston-based development partner, The HYM Investment Group LLC. HFF worked on behalf of the borrower to arrange the short-term, floating-rate loan. The property is centered among many of Boston’s most popular neighborhoods and destinations, including the Financial District, TD Garden, Faneuil Hall Market District, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, North End, West End and Beacon Hill. The development draws a diverse set of parkers, ranging from commuters to event attendees to residents seeking overnight parking. This location also offers immediate access to entrance ramps for Interstate 93, as well as two on-site subway lines (MBTA Green Line and Orange Line), providing connectivity to greater Boston. The property is also the site of Bulfinch Crossing, a 2.9 million-square-foot mixed-use development project that will consist of residential, office, hotel and retail uses. Led by the borrower, the Bulfinch Crossing project …
Retail vacancy levels declined in 2012 and 2013 in Eastern Massachusetts following several years of rising vacancy rates during the Great Recession. But since 2013, vacancy rates have been on the rise as shopping habits continue to tilt toward online options. In 2016, retail inventory gained modestly, reaching 194.2 million square feet, an increase of 0.5 percent, although no major center opened during the year. The region added 488,800 square feet of vacant retail space, and the vacancy rate increased to 9 percent. Big box closings — notably Sam’s Club, JCPenney, and Kmart — and the departures of Citibank and City Sports, were the primary cause of increasing vacancy. Nonetheless, the region experienced positive absorption, netting 573,600 square feet. As reported in The KeyPoint Report: Eastern Massachusetts/Greater Boston, Boston and Cambridge ranked one and two in the list of top 10 towns by retail square footage. Abington tops the rankings for lowest vacancy rate. Eight of the top 10 towns with the highest vacancy rates are repeats from the previous year; new additions include Wrentham, site of the 135,000-square-foot Wrentham Crossing, which is vacant and currently for sale. The under-2,500-square-foot size classification remains the largest segment of the market, and …
E-commerce and the growth of the digital age have become important factors in the tightening industrial real estate market. With single-digit vacancy rates becoming the norm in nearly all of the Greater Boston submarkets, existing product cannot supply the space necessary to meet current market demand. Consumers’ shopping attitudes have changed, and retailers are having to adjust their strategies to meet their needs. In 2016, the Greater Boston industrial market recorded vacancies averaging 6.8 percent, the lowest in more than 15 years. The thriving e-commerce industry has been a large factor in the spike in demand. Last year, major e-commerce tenants like Amazon, FedEx and Wayfair expanded their presence in the Boston market with new leases on distribution centers, pushing 2016 absorption to almost 6 million square feet, an all-time record. Retailers are now looking to expand their coverage with multiple warehousing locations, pushing for facilities proximate to their specified consumer base. Instead of having one regional warehouse/distribution center, retail giants have zeroed in on infill submarkets surrounding cities to locate multiple warehouses close to the population center. Just last year, Amazon leased a 96,600-square-foot warehouse in Everett, minutes from Downtown Boston, which would become a base for grocery and …
Greater Boston’s office market is continuing a very strong streak, closing 2016 and the fourth quarter on a good note. The year saw 1.4 million square feet positively absorbed with 789,000 square feet absorbed in the fourth quarter. The current vacancy rate is 12.7 percent, slightly lower than the market average over the last five years of 13.6 percent. Average Class A asking rents are $43.12 per square foot, which has appreciated 9.1 percent in the last three years. Neither the quarter nor the year are aberrations. The market is on an extended run of positive returns. Office space in the Greater Boston market has now seen positive absorption in 14 of the last 15 quarters, accumulating 12 million square feet positively absorbed over that period. The Boston CBD contributed 59,000 square feet of positive absorption in the fourth quarter, decreasing the vacancy rate 0.1 percentage points to 9.6 percent. The most absorption of the CBD submarkets occurred in the Financial District, which saw 69,000 square feet positively absorbed. Average Class A asking rents are currently $55.09 per square foot in the CBD, led by Back Bay, which has an average asking rate of $62.51 per square foot. Across the …