Image courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture LLP and Arrowstreet Inc.
Boston restaurant owners, business groups and commercial real estate developers argued that a proposed office tower that’s been subject to a lengthy review is a necessary element of downtown’s post-COVID recovery.
Midwood Investment and Management has been seeking approval since October 2020 for the 11-21 Bromfield St. project, which would replace a cluster of low-rise buildings with a 23-story, 417,000-square-foot office tower.
Executives from three development companies that own downtown properties buildings backed the Midwood project as a benefit, not competitor, to their own investments.
“Projects like [11-21 Bromfield] are essential in maintaining and increasing the value of properties like ours,” said John Spurr, vice president of A.W. Perry, which owns five class B office buildings in downtown Boston. “There will be a market for those as the towers fill up.”
At the latest Boston Planning & Development Agency advisory group meeting on the project Tuesday, executives from developers Synergy Investments and Phase 3 Partners also spoke in favor of the project.
Much of the discussion centered on the benefits of office space to the downtown district. Midwood and brokerage JLL argued that the key to reviving office leasing is delivery of new class A buildings that employers will use as a recruitment and retention tool.
“We can stop the exodus of retail and repopulate the downtown district,” Midwood Vice President Mark Rollins said.
The Midwood project is the only major office development proposed in the central business district. Vacancies in the Midtown submarket, which includes Downtown Crossing, topped 19 percent in the third quarter, according to CBRE research.
Speakers debated the future of the downtown office market and the role it could play in supporting the broader local economy.
Chris Jamison, whose COJE Restaurant Group employs 900 people at restaurants including Yvonne’s in Downtown Crossing, said the project will turn a blighter corner of the neighborhood into a “crown jewel.”
The impact advisory group has been reviewing the Midwood office proposal since January 2021, and some speakers said the time is right to move the project forward to the BPDA board for approval. The developer had previously proposed residential towers on the site in 2008 and 2016.
“This developer has been on this for 15-plus years, and I think people are looking at that as some sort of a negative. I would look at that as the complete opposite,” said Morgan Weinstein, executive vice president for Phase 3 Partners, which has approvals for an office-to-lab conversion at 55 Summer St. “I’m excited about this part of Downtown Crossing getting some energy.”
Rents at newly completed buildings have increased 20 percent since the beginning of the pandemic, JLL Research Manager Bryan Montgomery said. New office buildings such as Millennium Partners’ Winthrop Center and Samuels & Assoc.’s 1001 Boylston and have preleased 85 percent of their space before completion. And the pace of new construction has dropped dramatically, with the South Station tower and 10 World Trade projects, comprising 869,000 square feet of office space, the only major projects under construction.
An April 2023 report by the Brookings Institution challenged the rationale behind the push for office-to-residential conversions in many cities that have seen rising office vacancies since the pandemic.
Office buildings typically house twice the population as multifamily buildings and deliver more economic benefits to surrounding neighborhoods, the report stated.
Opposition to the Midwood project has centered on the proposed building height and potential shadow and wind effects on the Old Statehouse building. As part of its PLAN: Downtown rezoning study, the BPDA is proposing to rezone an area including the Bromfield Street property for building heights increasing from 155 to 400 feet, prompting critics to charge the site was singled out for spot zoning.
