1 and 10 Emerson Place in Boston's West End. Image courtesy of Google Maps
Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office announced Tuesday that multifamily giants AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential agreed to sell two apartment towers in Boston’s West End.
The agreement with Campbell’s office meant she did not block the two REITs’ merger on antitrust grounds. The $69 billion, all-stock merger closed Monday. The combined entity will now be known as Vivmark Residential.
A preliminary investigation indicated a combined entity would dominate so much of the high- and mid-rise apartment market, the merger would give it outsized pricing power, Campbell’s office said. AvalonBay and Equity Residential collectively owned 16 such apartment buildings within a mile and a half of the State House, and over 50 complexes in the Boston metro area.
“When real estate companies consolidate market share, it can lead to higher prices, lower quality amenities, and worse lease terms for renters. This agreement protects Boston renters and ensures this merger doesn’t create unlawful market control,” Campbell said in a statement. “As rent prices continue to soar, I will keep using the tools of my office to address housing affordability and protect consumers.”
Vivmark will now seek to offload 1 Emerson Place and 10 Emerson Place, Campbell’s office said, and make a $500,000 contribution to Quincy’s Affordable Housing Trust to support affordable housing preservation and development in Quincy, where Vivmark owns and operates six apartment buildings. The deal was first reported by Universal Hub.
Equity Residential acquired the two towers and a cluster of neighboring buildings in a $72.35 million deal with their original developer, the Charles River Park Company, in 1998. The two were the first built in developer and civic leader Jerry Rappaport’s City Hall-enabled wholesale leveling and redevelopment of Boston’s West End in the late 1950s.
Equity later built three townhouse clusters and two new multifamily towers on the site in the mid-2000s and a third tower last decade, across the street from AvalonBay’s North Station tower – all properties Vivmark appears set to retain post-merger. It also received Boston Planning & Development Agency board approval to convert roughly 20,000 square feet of ground-floor office space in the towers into apartments, bringing their combined unit count up to 477 upon completion.
Amenities noted on the property’s website include underground parking, on-site laundry, a 24-hour fitness center, and an outdoor dog run and patio with grills. The buildings are across the street from Mass. General Hospital, walking distance to the MBTA’s Red and Green lines and connected to the Esplanade via a newly rehabbed pedestrian bridge across Storrow Drive.
