Ted Tye
Title: Managing Partner, National Development, Newton
Age: 56
Experience: 31 years
Ted Tye and National Development have a knack for finding new uses for previously developed parcels. In the past decade the Newton company has built 331 apartments at a former sand and gravel plant in Burlington, hundreds of condos and dozens of retail shops at the Station Landing site in Medford and an upscale shopping center at a former golf course in Lynnfield. The latest high-profile conversion: the Ink Block development at the former Boston Herald site in Boston’s South End, which will include 315 apartments, 83 condos and a Whole Foods Market. Tye is also a part owner of the Maine Red Claws, the Boston Celtics’ affiliate in the NBA Development League.
Q: What feedback have you been getting from tenants at [300,000-square-foot lifestyle center] MarketStreet Lynnfield since it opened last summer?
A: It’s been all positive. We identified, with our partners WS Development of Newton, a real demographic hole in the market north of Boston for lifestyle centers. Lynnfield really just has hit the mark. We had a very strong holiday season. We’re essentially fully leased on our first phase and now we’re focusing on leasing our second (100,000-square-foot retail and 70,000-square-foot office) phase and getting construction under way in the spring or summer of 2014. We have not begun office leasing yet. We are more than 50 percent leased on the retail side.
Q: Are most of the good sites for transit-oriented development already taken?
A: No, I think there’s still some left. We were probably one of the pioneers between Station Landing and Arborpoint at Woodland Station in Newton, which was one of the first times the MBTA used one of their parking facilities for development. Boston is a very mature city and real estate changes over time. It’s challenging to find the locations. They certainly will be there. The Green Line expansion [into Somerville and Medford] will have a few opportunities and the Fairmount [commuter rail line from South Station to Readville] as it gets improved will have some opportunities for housing. People want transit, they want walkable neighborhoods. That’s why there’s an influx into the city, which is not the way it is in many places around the country.
Q: Is Ink Block on schedule right now?
A: We have three buildings under construction right now. The Whole Foods Market will be delivered to [the Austin, Texas-based grocer] this spring and they’re targeting a late 2014 of early 2015 opening. The 315 apartments in the first three buildings will be opening in the first quarter of 2015. There will be 10 retail stores and restaurants fronting Harrison Avenue. We have about 35,000 square feet of additional retail and restaurants [available to lease]. This neighborhood is one that’s been a little rough around the edges and this street life is really helpful to it. We have a fourth (condo) building, Sepia, that’ll be under construction in April, 83 luxury condo units that are scheduled to be completed in mid-2015. It just brings more activity to this part of the South End. Over 25 percent of the building is under agreement at this point. The price range runs from $495,000 to over $2 million.
Each of the three [apartment] buildings will have a different exterior. When we started this (approval process) with the neighborhood and the [Boston Redevelopment Authority], the neighborhood groups said to us, We want (Ink Block) to look different. We want this project to be symbolic of something really exciting happening in the neighborhood, so your design needs to reflect that.’ That’s a very refreshing approach you don’t often hear.
Q: What commercial property types will be strongest for development in 2014?
A: There’s a shift in the office market as companies move in and occupy space toward the Seaport. Where are those companies that have been there [for years] going? In some cases they’ll backfill the Financial District, but they’re not going to the Back Bay because of cost. So one of the opportunities for the development world is to figure that out.
Top Five Favorite Basketball Players:
- Bill Russell
- Kevin Garnett
- John Havlicek
- Larry Bird
- Kevin McHale
