Courtesy of National Development

Friday marked an end of one era and the start of another for National Development, one of the Boston’s area’s most prolific and creative real estate firms. 

National Development opened the doors to 7INK, the last piece of the firm’s landmark Ink Block project that has transformed an industrial stretch of the South End into one of the city’s hottest new neighborhoods. 

The 14-story apartment mid-rise marks the completion of Newton-based development powerhouse’s nearly decade-long buildout of the Ink Block, a multi-building, mixed-use project that includes a hotel, a Whole Foods, and hundreds of apartments and condominiums. 

The project’s roots go back to the late 2000s, when National Development cut a deal for the old Boston Herald building on Harrison Avenue, which had served as home to the daily paper and its printing presses since the 1950s. 

National Development began work on the project in 2013, which involved taking down the sprawling red brick Herald complex – the paper having moved at that point to rented offices in South Boston – and freeing up the land underneath for new development.

“You can move into an apartment and it is fully furnished – you don’t have to do a thing. We even clean it.” — Ted Tye, managing partner and co-founder, National Development 

Courtesy of National Development

The first three Ink Block buildings opened in 2015, 315 apartments in 1 Ink, 2 Ink, and 3 Ink, with 2 Ink featuring a green roof and swimming pool and a 50,000 square foot Whole Foods. 

The 77-unit condo and retail building Sepia came next, followed by a third phase, which delivered the Siena, a 76-unit condo building, and a 205-key AC Hotel by Marriott. 

Now, with 7INK, the last and final piece of the Ink Block puzzle, National Development is making a big wager the rental market is headed in a new direction that features more togetherness, more roommates, and more communal living.  

The new 180-unit mid-rise offers a new twist on city living designed to capitalize on growing interest in “co-living” by young professionals and other urban dwellers. All told, the building will have 350 bedrooms. 

7INK offers a mix of smaller, traditional studio and one- and two-bedroom units, and larger three- and four-bedroom apartments designed for what National Development is calling “inclusive living,” a phrase the firm has trademarked, said Ted Tye, the firm’s managing partner and co-founder. 

Those bigger units are designed to be shared by a group of roommates. While each roomie would pay something under $2,000 a month, everything is included, from the furniture and pots and pans to the cable and electric bill. 

Scott Van Voorhis

7INK also features a café, workspaces and meeting rooms, as well as a rooftop deck and a backyard patio with fire pits. A full-time “community engagement director” will be in charge of planning events to help tenants get to know each other and the city. 

National Development is ahead of schedule filling the building, with 20 percent of the units pre-leased, Tye said. Tenants include a “real mix of people” in their 20s and early 30s, from nurses and medical students to artists and lawyers. 

“You can move into an apartment and it is fully furnished – you don’t have to do a thing,” Tye said. “We even clean your apartment.” 

 Looking to Future Projects 

But as it closes the door on one project, National Development is gearing for its next big endeavor, building a new mid-rise on Huntington Avenue in the Back Bay across from the Christian Science Center’s reflecting pool. 

The real estate firm plans to begin work this fall in replacing the old Midtown Motel with a 10-story apartment building featuring 325 units. 

National Development is also working on life sciences complexes in Fort Point, Watertown and the WBZ site in Brighton. 

“We are spending a good amount of time on life sciences these days,” Tye said. 

That said, the company is carefully reviewing potential sites, with the understanding that there could at some point be an overload in the number of life sciences projects in the pipeline. 

“Not everyone is getting in line with end-up building,” Tye said. “Our approach has been not to chase a lot of RFPs.”