Commercial Interests
A Banker & Tradesman Blog
Boston Team Owners Go From Trophies to Towers
These days everyone seems to have a side hustle going. Apparently, that also includes the fabulously wealthy owners of Boston’s pro sports teams, all of whom have made real estate a second career of sorts.
Poll Shows It’s Up to Healey to Guide State’s Housing Fixes
When it comes to tackling the housing crisis, Massachusetts voters want an all-of-the-above approach. That’s one message to take away from a recent poll.
An Office Titan Faces a Philosophical Question
Boston Properties, our hometown real estate giant, recently found itself confronted with a question that would have been unthinkable before the watershed year of 2020.
MBTA Communities Zoning Is Making Strange Bedfellows
Your die-hard progressive and your friendly neighborhood Trump supporter might not seem to have much in common. But each is playing their part in stopping fixes for the state’s housing crisis.
Housing Production Plans Leave Out a Critical Type of Home
The Bay State’s plans to rein in skyrocketing housing costs can be summed up as: build more multifamily housing. But that puts them at odds with the dreams of today’s buyers.
To Get Transfer Taxes Passed, Try Compromising
It likely feels like “Groundhog Day” for the coalition seeking a transfer tax on higher-end sales after running into a brick wall in the House of Representatives.
Boston Building Permits Tick Up In 2024
The numbers for the state’s capital and economic engine, while still far from robust, are also improving. Still, it’s worth asking why the housing numbers in Boston are stuck at very low levels.
A Tale of Two Casinos
Why did Wynn’s seeming long shot bet on an Everett casino pay off big-time while MGM’s grand hopes to turn Springfield into a casino resort mecca ingloriously fizzled?
Housing Slump Deserves a Deeper Look
With all due respect a bunch of academics, however distinguished, need to hear from developers in the trenches to get to the bottom of why Boston’s suffering a plunge in housing starts.
Boston’s Luxury Condo Market Still Cold
Red hot for years, has the Boston luxury condo market finally lost its sizzle? It looks like it – and developers’ ability to offer cash back at closing could be keeping prices from coming down.
Downtown Boston Needs More than New Zoning to Bounce Back
Can downtown Boston escape the so-called urban doom loop? Probably. But it’s going to take a lot more than new “skyline” zoning for taller towers to bring it back.
Don’t Let NIMBYs Kill Green Power
NIMBY local pols and naysayers wrecked the housing market in Massachusetts. Now, they’re threatening to do the same thing with the state’s new clean energy industry unless Beacon Hill can stop them.
Boston Mayor Shocks Real Estate with Office Tax Rate Hike
The scale of Mayor Michelle Wu’s planned massive hike to tax rates on office, lab and retail buildings comes at a terrible time. And she seems to be ignoring an important alternative strategy.
Stop. You’re Making It Worse
Recent hoopla about soft landings aside, the Federal Reserve’s drive to bring down prices has made immeasurably worse what was already the most expensive item in Americans’ budgets: the cost of housing.
To Get Real Housing Production, Let’s Break Out the Carrots
It’s become increasingly clear that the MBTA Communities housing law is no silver bullet. So why not make new housing a profit center for towns and suburbs, rather than a perceived drag?
It’s Two Steps Forward, One Step Back in Fixing Our Biggest Problems
The last week shows progress is likely to be two steps forward and one step back given decades of neglected maintenance at the T and the NIMBY backlash to the Healey administration’s housing plans.
Be Careful What You Wish For, Madam Mayor
Don’t like the Boston Planning & Development Agency? Think it’s too close to developers and business interests and should be abolished? Just amp up the fractious Boston City Council’s influence on what gets built.
Goodbye to Downtown Skyscraper-Building
When the South Station tower opens next year, it will be one of the largest office projects ever built in the city. It may very well be one of the last as well.
Fed’s Refusal to Cut Rates Drags Down Housing Market
When it comes to describing what’s happening right now in the real estate market, you can take your pick, but downturn, recession or even depression all seem like good fits right now. You just wouldn’t know it from reading the business press.
The Next Banking Panic?
Nearly a year after SVB’s failure, a potentially bigger banking crisis is looming, this time centered on the troubled world of commercial real estate loans made on what are now half-empty downtown office towers across the country.
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