Ted Tye
Title: Managing Partner, National Development
Experience: 32 years
National Development has reinvented a tired 6-acre stretch of Boston’s South End with its 500,000-square-foot Ink Block development including luxury residences, trendy retail and an AC By Marriott hotel. While the Newton-based firm has benefited from the continuing urban renaissance, it’s just as active in the suburbs, with such projects as the repositioning of Burlington’s New England Executive Park as The District and redevelopment of a former Raytheon Corp. property in Sudbury. And it’s in permitting for a 300,000-square-foot redevelopment of a former Sam’s Club property in Natick for a hotel and active-adult residential community.
Q: What are the latest sales figures for Siena at Ink Block?
A: We’re within a year of completion in early 2018. We’ve had a good amount of sales over the winter. We’re over a third pre-sold at this point, ahead of where we thought we would be. It’s an interesting market in terms of condos. While there’s not huge supply, the buyers typically are looking to buy fairly close to when they occupy. As the steel goes out of the ground in the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a flurry of activity in the sales office. The old Transit Insurance building at 217 Albany St. will be building seven at Ink Block. We haven’t announced anything yet, and we hope that we’ll have an additional building as long as our market cycle continues.
Q: You’re set to begin work on the I-93 underpass area this spring?
A: We’re calling it Ink Underground. That is approximately 7 acres from Albany Street to Fort Point Channel. A lot of that is under I-93. That is going to be a great urban park. We’re working hard on that right now to put some extensive programming and make it a fun event-filled space with a focus on arts and entertainment. MassDOT created the space as part of what they call the Infra-Space program. They’ve been responsible for all of the construction and a majority of the design. We were the successful bidder and we’ll control it long-term. It’s our responsibility to activate and program the space. We’re looking at making it similar to the Lawn on D. It’s going to be very active and draw people there.
Q: What amenities at Ink Block have resonated the most?
A: The Whole Foods Market was just named the second-highest grossing Whole Foods in the country. That obviously is a huge engine in the growth of Ink Block and the area. The fact that we connected all of our buildings so you can actually walk indoors to Whole Foods has been a big selling point for us.
Our concept for retail was we wanted to have a large restaurant mix that kept the lights on late at night and brought some energy to the sidewalks. We curated this group of restaurants to be able to hit a couple of price points and different styles. The rest of the build-out is really fitness: Turnstyle Cycle & Bootcamp and CorePower Yoga, which had the highest pre-sale membership of any in the country. They had to stop selling them when they reached 1,000. That gives you an indication of what’s going on in the neighborhood. Then you see the other developers coming in with UDR, Related Beal, Leggat McCall, Druker Co. and the Abbey Group at the Flower Exchange property.
Q: You’re building active senior housing at the former Cleveland Circle Cinema property. Is that category a growth opportunity in Boston
A: There’s effectively none of it. And we’ve been very big developers of senior housing for 25 years. We’ve done over 30 projects. We’re just seen more and more demand from people who want to be connected to the city, and it’s really an ideal location because it’s connected to the western suburbs and the city. We’re trying to drop something great into Cleveland Circle.
Q: What’s the biggest risk to the Boston development cycle?
A: Being in this business for 30-plus years, it’s always run in cycles and if you understand the length of the cycle you’re a lot wiser than I am. It’s all really driven by a strong economy and strong employment. As long as that stays in place, I think we still have the capacity to absorb a lot of the projects that are out there and proposed at this point. I think rents will moderate a little bit, but I don’t think substantially over the next couple of years. We’re still in the middle of a strong market cycle that is bringing people into the city and I think that’s going to continue.
Q: The life science industry has expressed concern about the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
A: The educational institutions are very concerned, because they’re driven by foreign students. Will they continue to come to the U.S.? I’ve had one pretty substantial deal go on hold because of uncertainty about funding in the medical and research area. Those are all little warning signs and I won’t go public with my political views, but it’s uncertain times.
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- The Three Stooges
- Law & Order SVU
- Saturday Night Live
- Any Celtics, Pats or Sox game
