Mayor Wu Prepares Rent Control Proposal To Cap Increases At 10%

After more than a year of hinting at the revival of rent control in Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu is on track to bring forth a new proposal to cap rent increases at 10% per year.

Wu floated the plan to an advisory committee on Tuesday but hasn't yet submitted a final version of the proposal, the Boston Globe reported. The proposed plan would need approval from city and state lawmakers. A Wu spokesperson confirmed the details of the proposal to Bisnow. 

“We continue to work with the advisory committee toward specific legislative language that would protect families from rent gouging and displacement as our city continues to grow," the spokesperson told Bisnow in an emailed statement. "We look forward to receiving additional stakeholder feedback before filing a proposal with the city council.”The plan, modeled…

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BPDA Proposes New Height Limits In Parts Of Downtown Boston

The Boston Planning & Development Agency is proposing new zoning changes for the Downtown and Chinatown neighborhoods that would increase the maximum heights allowed in certain areas.

The updates would create a baseline height maximum of 125 feet on a series of downtown blocks, but it would allow developers to exceed the basline and build up to 155, 180 and even 400 feet in certain areas if they contribute to a new fund for neighborhood benefits, the

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A Conversation With The Developer Behind The Country’s Biggest Office-To-Resi Conversion

Turning obsolete office buildings into apartments seems like the perfect solution to two huge problems clouding the future of big cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco: sagging commercial property values and a lack of affordable housing.

The theory is often batted down by reality — most conversions are out of the reach of even highly motivated developers after factoring in zoning restrictions, cost and other complexities. But some are pushing forward on projects that could truly make a dent in these seemingly intractable issues.

At 25 Water St. in Manhattan’s Financial District, GFP Real Estate, Metro Loft Management and Rockwood Capital are turning the 1.1M SF 1960s office building formerly known as 4 New York Plaza into 1,300 apartments. Last month, the team scored a $536M loan from MSD Partners and Apollo for the purchase and redevelopment of the building, the largest transaction of its kind in U.S. history.

Brian Steinwurtzel, co-CEO of GFP Real Estate, spoke to Bisnow last week to discuss the physical changes the development team is planning to make to 25 Water, what made the lenders feel comfortable enough to finance the development, and offered some practical changes the government…

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