During the lengthy commercial real estate boom, many industry figures said Greater Boston’s diversified economy – with its strengths in financial services, technology and life science – was built to withstand anything except a “Black Swan event” such as a natural disaster or geopolitical conflict.
Stephen Pleines founded Boston-based Eastern Land Co. in 2018. The Newbury Street brokerage represents such tenants looking for new locations as ATI Physical Therapy and juice bar CocoBeet, along with landlord representation.
While complex, multi-faceted models of activating ground-floor space offer a potential strategy to reflect two trends in 2020 commercial real estate: a steady loss of industrial space in Boston’s urban core, and COVID-19-driven disruption to traditional retail and restaurant models.
