It’s no secret that the suburbs lag behind Boston in the creation of affordable housing. Year after year, economists have noted that the suburbs could learn much from Boston and its best practices for reducing the time it takes to secure housing permits and construct units.
Migration to inner-ring suburbs – from Boston, Cambridge and Route 128 office parks alike – is generating steady leasing activity and pushing rents to record highs.
Demand for next-generation office space and life science R&D facilities is generating a wave of speculative redevelopments in Boston’s western suburbs and a string of recent success stories luring growing companies from Cambridge and elsewhere along the Route 128 belt. Refreshed office space, speculative lab projects and office-to-lab conversions are driving development activity in the suburban market. And the strategy appears to be paying off.
Pop psychology quiz: What words come to mind when I say the phrase, “new apartment construction in the suburbs?”
A succession of “space available” and “now leasing” signs decorate office and R&D buildings along Route 129, the heart of Chelmsford’s 623-acre commercial district.
