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December 10, 2009
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REAL ESTATE
HO, HO, HUH?
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| Hello, Boston! We're delighted to hit your inbox with local real estate news and tidbits about your peers. Our writer, Susan Diesenhouse is no stranger (she covered real estate for the NYTimes), so feel free to send story ideas or just say hi. If you don’t know us, we’ve been daily for years in DC, and more recently in NYC, Chicago, and Dallas, and Houston. Now, we’ll also be making regular stops at the South End, Boston Waterfront, and Post 390. |
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| Christmas has come early for Boston real estate, assuming your Christmas is like ours: crying, praying for next year, the occasional gift of good news, quickly torpedoed by reality. OK, the NAIOP annual forecast last Thursday wasn’t that bad. But our in-laws read this, and we didn’t want them coming to our place this season. |
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A full house visited the Hyatt in Downtown Crossing, with folks looking for a bright note amid news that downtown office vacancies rose to 9.5%, average Class A asking rents fell to $43.92, and sales volume slid 90% through 3Q. The genial panelists: Lincoln Property’s Gregory Cahill, Grubb & Ellis’ Jack Kerrigan, Cushman & Wakefield’s Mark Winters, and CBRE’s Christopher Cuddy.
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Ever the optimist, Richards Barry & Joyce’s Frank Petz concedes we’re playing “small ball.” But he feels Boston is doing better than some office markets, NYC included, just not as hot as DC. (We remind everyone that Derek Jeter doesn’t play for the Nationals, so we’re fine with this.) Frank thinks that Boston will get swept up in the vitality now invigorating Asia and Europe. Even the specter of more owners moving toward default could pump sales, with more landlords willing to sell and buyers relenting on vulture pricing.
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Perspective from PPR CEO Bret Wilkerson: “That we’re debating if the recovery is a V or W is amazing after last spring’s meltdown.” His prediction that Boston/Cambridge office markets could see double digit rent increases once the recovery takes hold may very well be his last. That’s not a threat; the 38-year-old is leaving the prominent research firm. Over his 14 years, it grew from 5 to 75 here, London, and Hong Kong, and was bought by CoStar. One more tip, for old time’s sake: “The next 5-7 years in commercial real estate look to be very strong on the debt and equity side."
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Suffolk Construction Hits Pay Dirt
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What looks like Suffolk Construction’s northeast prez Mark DiNapoli TiVO'ing something boring is actually a planning session for a $1 billion rebuild of gritty Quincy Center. Suffolk signed a letter of intent last week with NYC-based developer Streetworks to help plan and construct a new 10-block core (housing, offices, retail, streetscapes and parking) for the old industrial city just south of Boston. Above, his teammates—David Chapman, Nicolas Nigro, and Carolyn Ernest—help him navigate through their Building Information Modeling system, creating 3-D images with specs that automatically adjust when any change is made to the design.
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| Going Rogue |
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All those Sarah Palin signings made us want to meet an author, too. Luckily, Anthony Flint has been out hawking “Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City.” His tour concludes tomorrow at a ULI lunch, but he gave us a preview of the tale of the housewife without a college degree who flattened Robert Moses, the man bulldozing NYC neighborhoods to put up highways and high rises. She saved gems like Greenwich Village and SoHo, while setting a new standard for urban development. Does Anthony take sides? "I go for the balance between great neighborhoods and the new development and infrastructure cities need to grow."
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| Send story ideas to Susan Diesenhouse, susan@bisnow.com |
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This newsletter is a journalistic news source which accepts no payment for featured interviews. It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly identified in the right hand column. You have been selected to receive it either through prior contact or professional association. If you have received it in error, please accept our apologies and unsubscribe at bottom of the newsletter. © 2009, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1323 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved.
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