In search of can-do attitude

There's some rumbling about plans for development projects along the Rose Kennedy Greenway.  This seems to happen whenever there are plans for significant commercial development in Boston.

But try to imagine Boston without its dramatic private developments: Quincy Market.  Rowes Wharf.  Copley Place.  International Place.  In so many instances, inspired commercial development has transformed our city.  In the Financial District, North End, Waterfront and Back Bay, commercial development has played a powerful role in revitalizing Boston, increasing our prosperity and improving our quality of life.
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New life awaits garage on Greenway

Donald J. Chiofaro, who developed International Place, has agreed to buy the Harbor Garage, between the New England Aquarium and the new Greenway on Boston's waterfront, for about $155 million and will probably replace it with a large complex of offices, residences, and a hotel.

"We've been looking for a big deal, and this is the deal we've been looking for," an ebullient Chiofaro said yesterday. "We love this site. It's on the Greenway and on the water."
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Chiofaro buying waterfront garage, plans major project

Developer Don Chiofaro is the winning buyer for the Harbor Garage where he plans to build a large-scale, $1-billion, mixed-use project. 

Chiofaro, who owns International Place in Boston with Prudential Real Estate Investors, is buying the Harbor Garage for about $150 million, according to a real estate source who asked not to be named because the transaction has not closed yet. Chiofaro plans to propose a mix of uses for the site including hotel, residential, office, and retail. 

"We won the bid," said Chiofaro on Monday night. "We've got it under agreement. We're going to close in a couple of weeks." 

The garage is located in downtown Boston across the street from International Place and is thought to be one of the best waterfront development sites in the city besides Fan Pier on the South Boston waterfront. It also overlooks the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.
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Trusting your gut: New Realities in office rental rates

Boston Business Journal
April 27 - May 3, 2007
by Michael C. Provost

For 15 years, rental rates in Class A downtown office towers have been a relative bargain. Compared with broad-based inflation indices and more specifically to the growth in total employee compensation over the same time period, space costs - rents - have not kept pace with inflation and, more importantly, have risen far slower then the employment cost index, which has increased nearly 60 percent more than office rents since 1989.         read more...

Boston: Engine of innovation

Boston Business Journal
January 26 - February 1, 2007
by Donald J. Chiofaro

For four centuries, the Boston region has been an amazing engine of innovation.  Boston statesmen helped birth our nation.  Boston engineers and scientists have created life-changing inventions.  Boston researchers have overcome disease.  Boston companies at the dawn of an industry have found ways to build that industry while still competing.         read more...

Demand for office space per worker is growing

Boston Business Journal
November 17-23, 2006
by Mark Roopenian

In the early 1990's, a recession and a crisis in our banking systems, paired with a dramatically overbuilt office market, sowed the seeds for a fundamental change in the way new projects would be done in the future. Vacancy rates rose to the mid-20 percent range and rents fell to the high 20s for Class A space. Demand was anemic, and for the first time in memory office buildings were viewed not as assets but as liabilities. During this time, virtually every major office building in Boston went back to its lender to restructure its debt.          read more...

Urban renewal: The greenway and Boston's vitality

Boston Business Journal
October 20-26, 2006
by Theodore A. Oatis

Boston enjoys extraordinary assets, including a unique concentration of academic, scientific and medial genius, investment and venture capital expertise, technical applications development skills, and enormous scientific infrastructure investments and intellectual contributions by our universities and hospitals. These and other unique cultural and commercial resources contribute to a richly textured lifestyle and workstyle that we Bostonians sometimes take for granted.         read more...