This Week's Boston Deal Sheet
Harvard is advancing a recession-delayed plan to build an extensive science and technology complex in Boston’s Allston neighborhood. It has filed a request for city approval of the 497k SF John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences complex.
There was some resistance to the growth plan from teachers and students, whose activities are centered around Harvard’s nearly four-century-old campus in Cambridge. But the Harvard Business School campus has long been in Allston, and this new complex will bring more people and businesses into the fast-changing neighborhood. The new tech complex at 114 and 140 Western Ave will be a teaching and research facility designed by the Boston office of German firm Behnisch Architekten. It aims to translate research ideas into products and services and attract other entities that want to be near the emerging innovation and entrepreneurial hub, the university says in its filing.
In June, Harvard alum, businessman and philanthropist John A. Paulson (above with HU president Drew Faust) donated the largest gift in the school's 379-year history: $400M to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Overall in Allston, Harvard is planning nine projects with 2.5M SF: new classrooms, labs, offices, a 1,000-seat auditorium and the science complex, the university’s Kevin Casey says. Plans for the expansion were first approved by the BRA in 2007. In Cambridge, Harvard plans 2M SF of renovations and new construction.
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John Hancock won Boston approval for its plan to start construction late next year on a new $350M, 625k SF building in Back Bay. Completion is slated for early 2019. The 26-story tower, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to be LEED Gold certifiable, will replace a nine-story building at 380 Stuart St. The insurer expects at least 3,000 employees to work at the new building, which is slated to include a conference center, collaborative space, a fitness center, retail, restaurant space, a roof deck and underground parking spaces for 175 vehicles.
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JC Cannistraro got the green light from the BRA to build a $15M facility for its plumbing, fire protection, HVAC and sheet metal pre-fab work at 25 Fid Kennedy Ave in the Boston Marine Industrial Park on the waterfront. In June, Cannistraro was tentatively designated as the redeveloper of the 157k SF site. Since then, the company and the city have come to terms on a 50-year lease, which paved the way for final designation. The company will overhaul the building to accommodate welding, assembly, fabrication, materials storage and office space.
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A development team led by Christopher DeSisto plans to build a $3.5M residential project with 15 new rental apartments and commercial space near another one of his projects, Bartlett Square I in JP. Construction on the four-story Bartlett Square II across from the Green Street T stop on the Orange Line should get underway in March and be completed July 2017.
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Horizon Development plans to build a $6M, 16-unit condo project at 100 Weld St in Roslindale on the site of a former gas station, vacant for the last 10 years. The new four-story building will include an office unit and parking for 26 cars.
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After over seven years of design changes and public meetings, Equity Residential has modified its proposal to build a new multifamily project near its property in the West End. It will build one tower rather than two, make the driveway narrower and include 2.5 acres of public open space.
Sales
A Related Beal affiliate paid $20.1M for 380 Harrison Ave and 290 Harrison Ave in the South End, a former Quinzani’s Bakery plant. The site sits amid a wave of development that’s quickly changing the neighborhood: the $185M Troy Boston, a 385-unit apartment complex developed by Gerding Edlen and Normandy; the $250M Ink Block of National Development that includes apartments, condominiums and a Whole Foods Market. In July, The Davis Cos paid $26M for the nearby loft-style office at 112 Shawmut Ave.
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GWT Haven Realty paid $1.1M for a mixed-use property at 281 Main St in Reading, more than double the $450k it last sold for in April 2011. The buyer was repped by MANSARD’s Jeremy Cyrier and David Maker.
Leasing
Tuscan Kitchen & Market—a concept inspired by open-air marketplaces in Italy—has agreed to take 14k SF at One Seaport Square and plans a summer 2017 move-in. The restaurateur has opened two Tuscan Kitchen & Market locations in Burlington and Salem, NH, and is planning to open a third in Portsmouth, NH. One Seaport Square, being developed by Berkshire, WS Development and BGI will include a 22-story and a 20-story tower, 250k SF of retail, and a 17k SF retail-lined pedestrian connector between the towers and the Moakley Federal Courthouse.
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Electric car maker Tesla Motors opened its first Boston retail store in the Shops at the Prudential Center, its second one in Massachusetts. This quarter, Tesla is opening about a dozen stores across the country, a company spokeswoman says.
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The Dorchester Brewery, an innovative brewery and co-working startup space for craft beer entrepreneurs is coming to Boston. Renovations of a former sheet metal factory are underway at 1246 Mass Ave for a 25k SF full-service brewery that will offer space for beer entrepreneurs to create their own brews and other local startups. CEO Matt Malloy is a former Zipcar executive who also worked at EdX, the Harvard-MIT online education provider.
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Jana Care, an Indian startup focused on diabetes, is establishing its first full-time US operations in Boston. Jana Care, which is setting up an R&D operation at 8 St. Mary’s St in BU’s Business Innovation Center and has joined the Harvard Launch Lab, was recently welcomed by Gov. Charlie Baker. The company was launched in Cambridge in 2011.
People
Nitsch Engineering has hired Denis Seguin as director of land surveying. Denis has 39 years of experience in land surveying, managing and coordinating survey field crews, processing survey data, and providing mapping for all types and levels of survey.
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Our sympathies to the family and friends of Kenneth Wayne Ford, 44, partner and officer of National Hotel Realty and New England Hotel Realty and a director and officer of Lodging Econometrics. He died from complications following an automobile accident.
