Sue Hawkes
Managing Director, The Collaborative Companies
Age: 73
Industry experience: 44 years
Luxury condominium developers rely on The Collaborative Companies not only to deliver buyers, but to advise them on optimal unit mixes and designs years before they receive a certificate of occupancy.
Over the past four decades in Boston-area luxury brokerage, Sue Hawkes has followed the market’s shifts during up-and-down cycles and shifted business strategies accordingly. The Collaborative Companies increased its focus on downtown Boston amid the past two decades’ urban resurgence, and added auction services during the Great Recession.
As development slows in Boston, TCC now is eyeing opportunities in multifamily residential development in the suburbs spurred by rezoning under the MBTA Communities law. A former broker with Codman Company, Hawkes founded The Collaborative Companies in 1997 along with Jon Gollinger and Bob Cole, before buying out her partners in 2008.
Q: What was The Collaborative Companies’ original business model and where are your growth opportunities?
A: All I did my entire career is the same thing we do now: vertical new construction [brokerage and advisory services]. I never dabbled in resale, so it’s a little unique. In 2008, we went into the auction business pretty heavily because it was a depressed market. We did auctions all over the country. That was the genesis of our analytical research. I’d argue that we do more than anyone in terms of understanding the market.
It’s easy to look in the rear-view mirror. It’s harder to project until you look at where the economy seems to be moving, but also the permits. You can tell what’s going on in terms of how deep the market is, what’s approved and what’s coming out of the ground. We get hired by developers to design the project to give them the right unit distribution and amenities. We’re very active at the early stages to determine the end result from a product and price distribution standpoint.
We’ve got a really good handle on what awaits in the future in terms of new construction. You have to look at the unit sizes and the prices. Because we’ve been doing these buildings for 25 years, we have all the floor plans and the infrastructure and we know the building. Utilizing that history and seeing what’s coming, we can find niches in the market that somebody could fill. A perfect example was COVID. Everybody was getting squeezed into their one-bedrooms [working from home] so the evolution of the one-bedroom-with-den was an example of capitalizing on that need.
Q: What’s your outlook for Boston’s condo pricing given the limited amount of new construction under way, with only one luxury tower opening in 2025?
A: We’ve had an amazing month for [The Ritz-Carlton Residences] at the South Station Tower. That project is really one that needed to be further along for people to appreciate it. It’s such a behemoth and people need to understand where the entry is, and how the commercial interacts with the residential. We’ve been able to get people into it the last few weeks, and it’s going to be ready at the end of [2025]. Boston has always done between 300 and 400 units per year in the luxury market at that pricepoint [$1.5 million and up]. If you look at the new inventory, we’re going to have such a dearth of new supply in another year.
Q: As the new supply in Boston dwindles, where are the other opportunities for The Collaborative Companies?
A: Up until 15 years ago, we had a big footprint outside the city. Because of the growth in Boston, we got so busy we stayed in town. We’re now doing projects in New Hampshire, including the condos at Tuscan Village. Our sales there average $780 a foot. That market is terrific and the [Boston] suburbs are a little more prolific with approvals. With the new requirements for MBTA Communities [multifamily zoning law], more cities are embracing it. Most of the new development is right outside the city: Everett and parts of Somerville and Watertown. Improvement of the rail situation and the MBTA Communities law will be much more helpful than trying to evolve the urban core.
Q: According to your quarterly rentals report, the Life Time Living-branded apartment building in Burlington has topped $3,900 in effective rent since opening in 2023. What’s the key to its appeal?
A: When you rent there, you get an automatic membership to the [adjacent] fitness facility. That’s not a small savings. Nordblom Co. built to a condo-level quality and they attracted a huge number of empty-nesters, much more so than you would expect in a rental community. It’s a very high-end older demographic, and they have a wait list for membership to the fitness club.
Q: Where do you see the local luxury condo market headed in 2025?
A: The inventory is going to get eaten up and prices are reasonably stable. There are some opportunity buys for projects looking to sell out the last 10 percent of their building, but not excessive. At that point, most of the debt is already paid for, so people are looking at it as, “This is my profit, this is my last opportunity.” So, this isn’t a fire sale moment. Drops in interest rates do impact the psychology of the consumer. I expect the suburbs to expand and explode.
Hawkes’ Five Favorite Restaurants in Boston:
- Amar
- Contessa
- O Ya
- Ostra
- Woods Hill
