The Seaport District of Boston is once again making headlines.
From our blogs sharing how Zipcar is moving its
headquarters to the Innovation District to the list of the
massive changes planned
for South Boston to even news on the East Boston Redevelopment
Project, there is a great sense of excitement regarding the
future direction of this area of Boston.
This aforementioned Innovation District termed by Mayor Thomas
M. Menino is in his words, A new approach is called for on the
waterfront one that is both more deliberate and more experimental.
The massive expanse of the South Boston waterfront, with its
existing knowledge base, opportunity for growth, and world-class
infrastructure is ripe to produce world-class products and
services. Despite the increased media attention and vast amount of
projects slated for the area, it was still rather unsure as to what
exact types of firms would be setting their roots in the area.
However now, this has all changed.
DivcoWest, the Real Estate investor, is very well known for
purchasing a broad range of first-class addresses, most notably in
Silicon Valley. Some of their tenants in this location include
Motorola, Apple Inc. and other leading technology firms. Their next
venture you might wonder? That would be none other than Boston and
in particular the Seaport District and East Cambridge.
Already in Cambridge we have reported on many occasions about
the technology boom leading to high-tech firms such as Google looking to
expand and build sprawling urban campuses in the area. It is
not just Google but also companies such as Microsoft, Pay Pal,
LogMeIn Inc., and Communispace who have all relocated offices and
increasing personnel to The Greater Boston Area. Essentially, as
time goes on, there is a serious backing to the fact that Boston is
positioning itself as a Hub for tech giants and a place where the
top bright minds coming out of all Universities will look to stay
to work as well.
Managing director of DivcoWest, Keith Wallace, said, A lot of
these companies are trying to use their real estate to attract
talent, and theyre mostly doing that by locating in urban areas.
Clearly, there soon will be an increasingly diverse array of
workplace playgrounds in Boston as well. Real Estate executive of
T3Advisors Roy Hirshland also went on to comment, I think Bostons
mayor is hoping the growth of the technology community will help
keep students and start-ups here, so they can stay in the urban
core and grow, and I firmly believe that is going to happen.
DivcoWest has certainly taken notice of this trend, as Wallace
then shared, Boston has always been a strong performer and were
seeing the most robust growth occur in those particular markets.
The exact properties eyed by DivcoWest that have been reported are
four buildings on Congress Street in the Seaport District that
total upwards of $105 Million, and the property on First Street in
Cambridge which is a 220,000 Davenport office building for $79
Million purchased in March of 2012. Finally and just around the
corner from the last property, DivcoWest also has aspirations of
securing a deal for the former Middlesex County Courthouse, a
twenty-two story building.
As these proposals by DivcoWest come to fruition and the
redevelopment of them to meet their tech company tenants needs are
up to standard, Boston will once again be stepping into the right
direction to becoming one of if not the technology hub in the
United States. It must be noted, however, that there are still
expected to be other types of companies from non-tech industries
such as engineering, construction, architecture and more. We look
forward to keeping up on these transformative developments in and
around our city of Boston.