News
BOOMTIME IN DOWNTOWN
November 28, 2011
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| We love a good walking tour, and we were on one recently withRebecca Lee of Edwards Wildman. Her law firm did thepermitting for several new downtown multifamily projects. In fact, of the total 1,056 units that went under construction in all of Boston in Q3, 92% of them were downtown, the mayor's housing adviserSheila Dillon tells us. Two weeks ago, the City approved fourmore projects with another 1,130 units valued at $865M. All told, it's the most residential development since ?06, making Boston a national standout. Rebecca is showing us 45 Stuart St, where AvalonBay just won city approval to build 404 apartments at a crossroads of the Theater District, Chinatown, Emerson College, and Tufts Medical Center. AvalonBay plans a spring start for the $125M project. |
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| Nearly two months into construction, the $170M, 381-unitKensington is just a few blocks away. It also straddles Chinatown and one of the nation's oldest theater districts. It's astounding for those who remember the old neighborhood as an almost forgotten, sometimes forbidding frontier of the city. |
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| We promise this isn't a green screen; we actually moved Rebecca to the scene of a groundbreaking two weeks ago: the $220M Hayward Place. An entire block is being transformed from a city-run parking lot into a 265-unit luxury rental building by Millennium Partners. They also developed the glass clad Ritz Carlton Tower and Condominiums across the street, for which Rebecca was thepermitting attorney. Like this entire group of developers, Millennium is contributing to the city's affordable housing fund,$8M in its case. Sheila says that the wave of new apartments may help slow the 12.5% rise in rental rates Boston experienced in '10. |
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| There was another groundbreaking two weeks ago, this time for the $92M Victor, on the North End side of the Greenway, across the street from the TD Garden. We snapped Suffolk Construction workers doing site prep for Simpson Housing with the glorious Zakim Bridge as a backdrop. The 286-unit apartment building with two rooftop lounges will be completed in early '13. |
