| The newest luxury apartment tower in Boston – AvalonBay’s 398-unit AVA Theater District – is designed for tenants who value common area perks as much as their individual living spaces.
The 30-story tower at 45 Stuart St. is 37 percent leased with average rents topping $4,000 a month. It’s the fourth complex built by Arlington, Virginia-based AvalonBay Communities under its AVA brand, which launched in 2012. Designed for walkable, urban neighborhoods and seeking to tap into a young professional demographic, AVA Theater District includes amenities such as a rooftop lounge with grill stations and fire pits.
“It’s all about creating places where residents can get together and be social,” said Michael Roberts, senior vice president of development for AvalonBay. “We’ve taken a unique site in the midst of a classic urban neighborhood. You’re in the midst of the Theater District and Chinatown and adjacent to the Financial District.”
The first move-ins took place in April. AvalonBay is hosting a grand opening reception Wednesday.
The tower was built on a former parking lot next to Jacob Wirth’s restaurant. Topping off the property is the Sky Pavilion, an indoor-outdoor terrace on the 29th floor with views of downtown and the Charles River. The lobby includes reclaimed materials from older Boston properties. A Twitter wall in the mailroom highlights posts culled from the surrounding area.
During a conference call to discuss the company’s second-quarter financials, CFO Sean Breslin said AvalonBay is “very pleased” with the average rent at AVA Theater District, given all of the competition among new luxury apartment complexes downtown. But he said the leasing strategy will change later in the year to reflect the seasonal decline in demand.
“We’ve pushed rents, but probably are leaving a little bit of gas in the tank,” Breslin said. “As you get into the fall (in Boston), it falls off pretty quickly and then as you get into the winter it can be pretty quiet.”
AVA Theater District is one of six new apartment complexes recently completed or under construction in Massachusetts by AvalonBay Communities. The 445-unit Avalon and AVA Assembly Row in Somerville, which began accepting tenants last year, are now 95.5 percent leased with average rents of $2,630, according to AvalonBay’s second-quarter financial report.
Construction began last fall on Boston’s tallest apartment building, the 38-story Avalon North Station on Nashua Street, which is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2018.
