News
AvalonBay Finds New Turf
October 3, 2011
| Hope you're not territorial. AvalonBay Communities, the suburban multifamily developer, is thinking downtown in the gateway metro areas where it's been doing lots of work for 20 years. In Boston, the REIT broke ground on a $100M tower in the hot Back Bay submarket and is permitting another in the Theater District and planning a two-tower complex at the waterfront. |
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| Development chief Michael Roberts (between Mayor Menino and AvalonBay CEO Bryce Blair at the Avalon Exeter groundbreaking) says the company is turning to downtown developments tocapture the 20 to 32-year-old market. He tells us it includes 80 million people nationwide who are getting the majority of new jobs. Also in Boston, the soft condo market has eased competition for the rare buildable sites and the apartment market is a year into recovery. Still, it's no cake walk; the Avalon Exeter has taken 10 years of planning and permitting just to start. |
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| Michael, here with colleague David Gillespie, says the Avalon Exeter (on the last buildable residential site at the Prudential Center) will be ready in two years. It was a complex deal, negotiating with property owner Boston Properties, and changing the site so the Mandarin Oriental could occupy Pru Center frontage on Boylston Street. The current site has its own intricacies: the tower is going up over a garage and part of a Lord & Taylor. Then there were two years working with neighborhoodgroups reviewing design. (To some, that's a sprint.) But the effort is worth it. Monthly rents will start at $2,000 for a studio and around $12,000 for a penthouse. |
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| Michael says he loves their development being planned for 45 Stuart St in the Theater District. In the heart of downtown, this once dingy block is part of a reviving neighborhood, walking distance from the Financial District, Downtown Crossing, The Common, Chinatown, Government Center, Bay Village, and multi-modal transit. At the waterfront, AvalonBay is planning a two-tower project in Phase I of the huge Seaport Square development of Morgan Stanley and Boston Global Investors. |
