| 
Kevin Kuzemchak
Title: Senior Vice President, The Shorenstein Co.
Age: 44
Industry Experience: 20 years
“The Center Of It All” is Shorenstein Co.’s slogan for Center Plaza, the 717,000-square-foot concrete edifice overlooking Boston City Hall Plaza that it’s repositioning with the impending relocation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation offices. It’s also a reflection of the company’s investment philosophy: Buy a temporarily-impaired property in a thriving coastal metro and add amenities to increase its attractiveness to potential tenants.
Helping lead those efforts on the East Coast is Kevin Kuzemchak, Shorenstein’s senior vice president of asset management. Kuzemchak oversees its portfolio in Boston, New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The Bentley College graduate joined Shorenstein in 2007 after working as an assistant vice president at AEW Capital Management in Boston.
Q:When do you expect to file a formal application with the Boston Redevelopment Authority on Center Plaza’s redevelopment?
A: We’ve been refining our plans and we’re getting close. We hope to get final BRA approval by September or October and move forward with construction. The feedback we’ve received has been generally positive. … Since its inception, Center Plaza has always been transversed by the public. You can always get through from Cambridge Street to Pemberton Square. It’s heavily used by the pedestrians and the BRA wants to make sure that pedestrian access is maintained 24-7. We’re working with our new retail team, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, and they are charged with providing new and exciting retail users. Shorenstein will update and upgrade the retail corridor to make it a more energetic and inviting experience.
Q: What’s unique about the Boston commercial market compared with other East Coast metros?
A: First of all, Boston’s economy is really diverse and so there seems to be growth in every segment. It’s got a highly educated workforce and it’s always been a little bit difficult to get a new development off the ground. The infill locations in downtown and Back Bay and the Seaport make it an attractive place for an investment.
Q: What’s the effect of all the foreign capital flowing into Boston on your ability to maintain price discipline in acquisitions?
A: It’s made it incredibly challenging.
Q: Are the suburbs part of your acquisition plans for Greater Boston?
A: We’re looking at any location and the right opportunity if it makes sense. We’ve looked in the suburbs. We have not looked there for the last four or five years, but now we are starting to at least pay attention. Suburban prices have become more attractive, it seems. Now that the economy has stabilized, there’s actually employment growth in the suburbs. Before, it was a larger concern that there was going to be more suburban flee to downtown, which has certainly happened. There’s opportunity for the suburbs, but you have to be in the right submarket and the right opportunity.
Q:Why is Shorenstein branching out into multifamily properties?
A: We’re doing all ground-up multifamily development. We are trying to identify submarkets and cities that have seen strong population and employment growth. We’re undertaking a few projects across the country. Certainly Greater Boston falls into that category.
Q:What’s the game plan for 1407 Broadway in New York?
A: We acquired a leasehold on 1407 Broadway at the end of April and we’re currently undertaking a renovation and repositioning plan there. We’ll invest $25 million to $30 million in new lobbies and streetscapes, common areas and some amenities. It was built in the 1950s and the occupancy rate is in the mid-80s. It’s one million square feet.
Q:Which submarkets in the Boston core are most likely to grow?
A: I think one of the things we’re really excited about downtown is our neighbors undertaking new repositioning: the Millennium Tower, HYM at One Congress and Ashkenazy at Faneuil Hall. What it’s doing is energizing the whole of downtown Boston and intertwining the downtown neighborhoods. Downtown always had great transportation but until recently it wasn’t its own 24-7 neighborhood. Now it’s becoming it’s own standalone neighborhood.
Top 6 Trends Driving Demand For CRE In Downtown Boston:
- Extensive access to multiple modes of public transportation
- Relative rent “bargain” compared with Seaport, Back Bay and East Cambridge submarkets
- New commercial real estate projects worth billions of dollars underway and approved
- Transformation of downtown into true 24/7 neighborhood continues
- Amenity base second only to Back Bay
- BONUS ANSWER: Completion of Rose Kennedy Greenway and anticipated Walsh Administration movement on redevelopment of City Hall Plaza
