Boston Real Estate Observer, Author at Boston

New Listing Available at The Prince

August 20, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

In addition to the shopping and ice cream on Newbury Street there are several condo developments, including 360 Newbury and the Prince. The Prince is a 36-unit development at 201 Newbury Street that does not see a tremendous amount of turnover. However, earlier this month, unit 506 at the Prince, a 2 bedroom 2.5 bathroom condo sold for $770K after being on the market for almost 6 months – at 1,314 square feet, the unit offered a competitive $586 Back Bay price per square foot. Additionally, unit 309 at the Prince, a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom is currently Under Agreement after being listed for only 8 days at $687,500 ($700 square foot) .

The most recent listing at the Prince, unit 302, represents a rare opportunity to purchase a true Newbury Street condo (Newbury and Exeter Streets) in a concierge building. Priced at $835,000, this is the two bedroom Back Bay condo that many are searching for, boasting 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms along with 1 fireplace spread over 1,097 square feet ($761 per square foot) with a common roofdeck. The $699 monthly HOA fee includes heat, hot water, master insurance, security, elevator, landscaping, and snow removal.

For more information on the Prince condo development, and other Newbury Street condos, please contact us using the link at the top of this page.

New Parking Spots for Sale

August 18, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

A handful of deeded parking spots have come available for sale over the past week, including two spots in the South End, one at Wilkes Passage and another at Gateway Terrace. Additionally, rare parking spaces have come available at Tremont on the Common, complementing the existing (rather small) inventory of deeded spaces in downtown Boston – for more details, see our Boston parking spaces page for information on currently available spaces or to contact us to list your existing space for sale.

Filed Under: Boston Parking Spaces Tagged With: Gateway Terrace, Tremont on the Common, Wilkes Passage

Macallen Building and Neighbors

August 15, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

A popular search phrase lately has been the Macallen Building, a 140-unit luxury eco-friendly development in South Boston. Macallen opened to residents a little over a year ago, and has been well received by not only Bostonians, but the building has been the center of attention in many regards, namely for it LEED certification, the first in downtown Boston.

We predicted absorption of this large luxury development in South Boston would be slow with the (relatively) high price per square foot being demanded given the investment that a LEED certification requires. Nonetheless, absorption has been steady, with currently only 16, both resale and developer, units for sale in the building. While sales prices at the Macallen over the past 6 months (10 units sold) have only been at 89% of list price, the price per square foot has averaged $570, which is still setting a new standard for South Boston.

Macallen’s sister development, Court Square Press, in comparison, has 5 units for sale currently, and over the past 6 months, the 7 units that sold in the building averaged $464 per square foot. Court Square press offers more classic loft style living with exposed brick and beam, at a lower price point than Macallen, however, Court Square Press residents enjoy all of the same common amenities that Macallen residents enjoy – Macallen and Court Square Press were both built by Pappas Properties, and share a parking garage, lap pool, large deck with grills, fitness center, and viewing room with adjacent kitchen and bathroom (perfect for private parties).

Across the street, Macallen and Court Square Press have two new neighbors, the Allele building, and the Lofts at 36 A. The Boston MLS shows that there are currently 18 condos for sale at Allele, with the average price per square foot of those sold over the past 6 months at approximately $390. The Allele is a new construction building, and boasts small outdoor balconies, yet lacks the same level of amenities that Macallen and Court Square Press can offer residents. While the Lofts at 36 A lack some of the same amenities, it offers residents high end finishes, and a fabulous roof deck (both common and private spaces). 36 A, a boutique 26-unit development, is almost sold out, with 3 units currently available. Over the past 6 months, the 14 units that sold averaged approximately $465 per square foot.

With all four of these developments being steps from the Red Line, they represent a viable alternative to some of the other core downtown neighborhoods, allowing your dollar to be stretched a little farther, especially in new construction.

Filed Under: South Boston Condos Tagged With: Allele Boston, Court Square Press, Lofts at 36 A, Macallen Building

Boston Parking Spots with No Fees

August 13, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

A surprise that Bostonians face when purchasing a parking space in the city is that there are oftentimes monthly fees associated with a spot – an HOA condo fee if you will. In addition to monthly fees, property taxes are sometimes due on a parking space as well (somewhat of a nominal yearly sum, but a sum nonetheless). Can you not simply own something free and clear? What’s the purpose in “owning” something if you have to pay a monthly “rent”?

Oftentimes, the monthly fees for a downtown Boston parking space are understandable, perhaps it’s an all valet garage, or there is a significant level of security in the building that you are paying for. Parking spots off of Commonwealth Avenue in alleys have snow removal services for instance. However, every now and then parking spaces come available that involve no fees whatsoever, an opportunity to own a piece of Boston free and clear.

That is the opportunity that is available at the Midtown Ritz Carlton towers, where two self-park garage parking spaces, with no monthly fees or real estate taxes, are currently available. See our Boston parking spaces page for more information on these two parking spaces, and all other spots available downtown.

Filed Under: Boston Parking Spaces Tagged With: Boston Ritz Carlton

Flip That Condo Broadluxe. Financial District Boston Condos & Lofts

August 10, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

Not more than two months following the condo auction at Broadluxe in Boston’s Financial District, there are three resale units available for sale – all of which sold at the auction on June 21, 2008 to a single bidder. If you’re at all close to the Boston MLS, you may have even seen these units hit the market in July, however, they were removed because the auction bidder did not actually own the units at the time. Closings on auction units at Broadluxe began on July 28, 2008.

These three Broadluxe flips of Financial District Boston condos and lofts have steep price increases from the prices paid at auction less than two months ago (unit number – price paid at auction / new list price):

5A – $482,500 / $688,500 ($635 per square foot)
7A – $375,000 / $750,000 ($739 per square foot)
8B – $595,000 / $1,075,000 ($809 per square foot)

Bear in mind that Broadluxe had two overarching unit types, finished units, and what were called shell units. The former are move-in ready, while the latter need to be finished by the Buyer (i.e. unfinished concrete floors, sheetrock on the walls, and rough plumbing and electrical installed, that’s it). Terms were written into the Purchase and Sale Agreement for the shell units that construction to finish the units needed to commence no later than 6 months following purchase, and finish no later than 18 months following purchase.

Unit 5A will remain as is, it’s a corner unit that came finished. Units 7A and 8B appear to have plans to be finished by the current owner (i.e. in addition to the price paid at auction, an investment will be made into finishing the unit to make it move in ready) . All in (including finishing units 7A and 8B), the current owner is attempting to make, as they say on the Flip This House TV show, an “expected profit” of at least $200K on each unit. 15 units remained for sale following the June auction, and most of those sold rather quickly in the month following the auction, but while post-auction units have not been selling at (minimum bid) auction prices (i.e. they have been selling for more than auction minimum bid prices), tremendous value has still been available for most Buyers.

While the Broadluxe auction presented downtown Boston Buyers with one of the best bargains available in 2008, time will tell if such flips as the three described above will command anything close to their asking prices.

Filed Under: Financial District Condos Tagged With: 02110 Boston Condos, Boston Lofts, Broadluxe

Exclusive Russia Wharf Renderings

August 8, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

While the majority of Russia Wharf will be office space, Boston Properties (the current developer) is making approximately 240 residential condo units available to a residential developer. The condos will be spread across floors 2-7 of multiple buildings, the Russia Building, and the Graphic Arts/Tufts Building – providing a total of approximately 298,723 square feet. Included in the residential component of the project will be 240 parking spaces. The building is slated for a 2011 completion, however, the residential units may finish after the office building. Below, the Boston Condo Blog brings you exclusive renderings of the updated design for Russia Wharf – stay tuned for other changes that are slated for this mixed-use Fort Point Channel development.

Filed Under: Waterfront Condos Tagged With: Russia Wharf

Downtown Crossing One Franklin Tower

August 5, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

If you haven’t stopped by the old Filene’s Basement area in Downtown Crossing, you’re going to be quite surprised to see what has been happening. To set the stage, the below photo was taking at the end of January 2008, just before the Filene’s lettering was removed from the side of the “basement” in preparation for demolition.

Construction crews are making way for the preservation of, and renovation to, the existing eight-story Filene’s building at the corner of Washington and Summer Streets, and the nine-story building at the corner of Hawley and Franklin Streets, combing to form a new mixed-use development called the One Franklin Tower at 426 Washington Street. One Franklin will boast over 1,200,700 square feet of hotel, retail, office, and residential Midtown condos.

Fast forward to this past weekend, August 2008, and you will see the exclusive photos below show significant progress (or lack of, depending on how you look at demolition) on the One Franklin project site.

Filed Under: Midtown Condos Tagged With: One Franklin Tower

Internet Search Goes Visual

July 31, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

With the search engine space being dominated by Google, you might think that there is no room for further innovation in the arena, however, over the past several months, new search engines have arisen that put a unique spin on how you find websites. Two of those search engines, described below, make a significant departure from the list-based search engine results pages (SERPs) that are characteristic of Google (Yahoo, and MSN).

SearchMe: Visual Search

SearchMe is a relatively new (still in beta) search engine that has a slick and easy to use interface that is visually stunning. After typing in a search phrase, the user is presented with screen shots of (hopefully) relevant websites that can be flipped through as though you were flipping through whole page advertisements while reading a magazine. The typical text based results of page titles that you would see on a standard SERP can be found by hovering your mouse over the top of one of the screenshots. Perhaps one of the only significant drawbacks to this engine is the number of clicks and time needed to scan through numerous sites. Our search for Boston Condo Blog displayed us as the third “page” in the search.

SearchMe Visual Search

Cuil Search Engine

The new (released Monday) search engine Cuil has been launched by former Google employees, and on the top of its features and benefits list is the cataloging of three times the number of webpages as Google (over 120 billion), and a unique magazine style display mechanism that is more visually intuitive than standard SERPs. Cuil is just getting off the ground, so while they have crawled a lot of sites, the actual search engine is still a little slow in returning results (perhaps due in part to their scaled down infrastructure versus that of Google), and some of the searches that we performed seemed to return too many pages from a single website (i.e. too many of the results on the “front page” were from the same website, which can be somewhat limiting). Our search for Boston Condos in Cuil displayed us as the “featured article” in the magazine style search results.

Cuil Search Engine

Google still remains king of the search engines, the speed of the engine, and the accuracy of the results, especially on long-tail searches (search phrases that are very specific in nature, Boston 285 Columbus Lofts Roofdeck, for instance), is unmatched. Nonetheless, Google’s reaction to the new entrants is positive, they encourage innovation in the industry, and by using a combination of search engines, including the new ones described here, offers a more robust search environment.

Filed Under: Real Estate Technology

Russia Wharf Boston

July 29, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

Fronting the new Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Russia Wharf has had several owners thus far, but regardless, the building is still pressing forward in construction. Russia Wharf will be a mixed use development that will house financial juggernaut Wellington Management, as well as offer approximately 200 residential condo units.

Situated next to the rather new Boston Intercontinental, Russia Wharf will be in good company, and will add to the live-work mix that is developing in the Waterfront area of the city adjacent to the Financial District. With the exclusive photos below, you get a feel for the preservation of historic building exteriors that will be part of the project slated for 2011 completion.

Filed Under: Waterfront Condos Tagged With: Russia Wharf

Beacon Hill Average Price per Square Foot

July 26, 2008 By Boston Real Estate Observer

Our analysis of average price per square foot values in downtown Boston neighborhoods continues with Boston’s Beacon Hill, one of the most prestigious areas of the city to call home. Beacon Hill prices command a premium over some of the other neighborhoods that we have looked at, however, prices are in line with such neighborhoods as the Back Bay and the South End.

Thus far in 2008, according to the Boston MLS, the average price per square foot on Beacon Hill has been approximately $731 (median of $708). The data range, covering roughly 102 condos, runs from $494 to $1,283 per square foot. The lowest being $494 per square foot at 45 Mount Vernon Street Unit 1C, a 1,570 square foot two-bedroom two-bathroom unit. The average price per square foot of $731 is characteristic of Unit 9 at 1 Garden Street, a 630 square foot one-bedroom that sold for $460,000 in May after being on the market for approximately 62 days with an original listing price of $469,900. The high end was at 108 Mount Vernon Street Unit 5, a 2,128 square foot three-bedroom three-bathroom unit with a full floor, four-sided exposure and five bay windows that sold in May for $2,730,000 ($1,283 per square foot).

Filed Under: Boston Condo Statistics