YW Boston Puts 13-Story Back Bay Complex On Market, And It Could Fetch $50M
One Boston nonprofit hopes to capitalize on the city’s ongoing hot real estate market.
YW Boston, formerly the YWCA, has put its 13-story building at 140 Clarendon St. by Back Bay Station on the market, and real estate experts think the price tag could reach $50M, the Boston Globe reports.
Built in the 1920s to provide a variety of social and housing services to young women, the 174K SF YW Boston building includes 118 apartments, with 79 designated as affordable housing and 39 as market-rate studios. The Lyric Stage theater group, Snowden International High School and the Hotel 140 are also tenants at the Clarendon Street building.
But whatever buyer acquires the property, it shouldn’t expect to move fast on a renovation or radically alter the exterior of the property.
The affordable housing component of the building has to remain for 30 years due to financing terms, YW Boston CEO Beth Chandler told the Globe. Other tenant leases would also have to run their course as part of the terms of a sale.
It isn’t the first time a Boston nonprofit has tried to add money to its coffers with real estate.
The YWCA sold 40 Berkeley St., now the Revolution Hotel, in 2011 for $8.5M. Across the street on Berkeley, the Benjamin Franklin Institute has put its South End campus on the market, similarly hoping to cash in on demand for real estate in Boston’s urban core.
