This Week's Boston Deal Sheet
Related Beal, known in Boston for its luxury housing investments, is proposing to do its first completely affordable and workforce housing project downtown: a $220M, 239-apartment mixed-use complex. The developer says that producing and owning affordable housing is in its DNA.
In 1972, Related was formed to develop affordable housing and has since produced or acquired—and kept as affordable—45,000 units nationwide, Related Beal EVP Peter Spellios (above left with VP for affordable housing in Boston Ted Lubitz) tells Bisnow. Noting the dearth of mid-market and affordable housing in the city, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has asked the private sector to help develop 53,000 new apartments that working people can afford by 2030.
Related Beal plans to deliver apartments for low-income residents—an 1,100 SF, two-bedroom for $600/month—in a prime downtown location, Bulfinch Triangle, designed by the top tier firm, CBT Architects, a block from North Station. The Walsh Administration is “very excited” about the proposal that still must go through the approval process, BRA spokesman Nick Martin tells us. It may serve as model for creating more mixed-income housing the city desperately needs.
By December, the developer expects to start two years of construction on the 14-story building that will include a 220-key hotel (probably a Marriott Courtyard), ground-floor retail and parking. It’s across the street from Related Beal’s Lovejoy Wharf project, where Converse relocated its HQ last week. The developer, who plans to invest equity, can generate enough income from the hotel to support the affordable housing, which will include rare three-bedroom family apartments, Peter says.
SALES
AustralianSuper has paid Brookfield Property about $300M for a 49% stake in 75 State St in the Financial District, a stabilized core asset in a gateway market that’s 98% leased. The two real estate giants entered a JV that values the 31-story office tower at $605M, or $720/SF. Brookfield will continue to manage and lease the 841k SF building. Brookfield was repped by Jeff Scott and Sarah Lagosh of Eastdil Secured and AustralianSuper by Jim Halliwell and Dan Thornton at Principal Real Estate Investors.
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Equity Residential sold 50 Staniford St in the MGH medical cluster to an affiliate of RREEF Property Trust for $123M. Repping the seller of the 100% leased, 193k SF MOB was Cushman & Wakefield's Robert Griffin, Edward Maher, Matt Pullen, Frank Nelson, Michael Greeley and Thomas Greeley. MGH occupies 74% of the building.
CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
The City made way for Boston Children’s Hospital to move ahead on its plan to build a new $1.2B, 11-story, in-patient building on its LMA campus. On Tuesday, the Boston Landmarks Commission denied landmark status to a garden on the hospital campus. The Prouty Garden, beloved by many, would have prevented construction of the new clinical building that hospital administrators say could serve 1 million children over the next 100 years.
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Gerding Edlen scrapped its plan to renovate and expand an existing building on the East Boston waterfront to instead build a new, $132M, 223-unit, 16-story multifamily building designed by ADD Inc, now with Stantec, LEED-certifiable. The BRA gave the green light to change the project that includes a host of amenities, improvement to the waterfront and a docking facility for water taxi services.
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Emerson College is moving ahead on its $100M, 276k SF plan to renovate and expand the Little Building at 80 Boylston St downtown to house a total of 1,050 students, 300 more than have been living there. The design by Elkus-Manfredi includes the repair, replacement and restoration of the historic façade, interior renovations and construction of an addition.
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The Skating Club of Boston is developing a $45M, state-of-the-art, three-rink skating facility in Brighton designed to achieve LEED Gold certification. The club will redevelop the 450k SF vacant Boston Tech Center to create a new place to host Skating Club programs, hockey and community activities through a partnership with the Allston-Brighton Youth Hockey Association.
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386 Market Street Realty won a nod of approval from the city to build a $5M, five-story multifamily development with parking in Brighton on a site now occupied by the Brighton Beer Garden. The design by Neshamkin French Architects would feature housing above 600 SF of ground-floor retail. Construction, slated to start in July, will be completed in September ‘16.
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On Malvern Street in Allston, HSH Realty will build a 48-unit, six-story, residential building that will include six affordable apartments and a payment to the Oxford Ping housing project in Chinatown. The building designed by Developmental Resources features a green roof that residents will share.
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Holland Development will partially demolish an old warehouse in the South End to renovate, expand and redevelop it into the $8M Factory at 46 Wareham, a 15-unit, multifamily building with retail, parking and new streetscape features.
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Jamaica View will spend $7M to redevelop two buildings once owned by New England Baptist Hospital and used for nurses’ housing into 40 residences with landscaping and traffic improvements.
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New Boston Ventures plans to start 18 months of construction later this year on a $35M, 40-unit residential building with 3,500 SF of ground-floor commercial space at 110 Broad St on the Greenway.
