Real Estate Investment Giants, DivcoWest
The Seaport District of Boston is once again making headlines. From our blogs sharing how Zipcar is moving its headquarters to the Innovation District to the list of the massive changes planned for South Boston to even news on the East Boston Redevelopment Project, there is a great sense of excitement regarding the future direction of this area of Boston.
This aforementioned Innovation District termed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino is in his words, A new approach is called for on the waterfront one that is both more deliberate and more experimental. The massive expanse of the South Boston waterfront, with its existing knowledge base, opportunity for growth, and world-class infrastructure is ripe to produce world-class products and services. Despite the increased media attention and vast amount of projects slated for the area, it was still rather unsure as to what exact types of firms would be setting their roots in the area. However now, this has all changed.
DivcoWest, the Real Estate investor, is very well known for purchasing a broad range of first-class addresses, most notably in Silicon Valley. Some of their tenants in this location include Motorola, Apple Inc. and other leading technology firms. Their next venture you might wonder? That would be none other than Boston and in particular the Seaport District and East Cambridge.
Already in Cambridge we have reported on many occasions about the technology boom leading to high-tech firms such as Google looking to expand and build sprawling urban campuses in the area. It is not just Google but also companies such as Microsoft, Pay Pal, LogMeIn Inc., and Communispace who have all relocated offices and increasing personnel to The Greater Boston Area. Essentially, as time goes on, there is a serious backing to the fact that Boston is positioning itself as a Hub for tech giants and a place where the top bright minds coming out of all Universities will look to stay to work as well.
Managing director of DivcoWest, Keith Wallace, said, A lot of these companies are trying to use their real estate to attract talent, and theyre mostly doing that by locating in urban areas. Clearly, there soon will be an increasingly diverse array of workplace playgrounds in Boston as well. Real Estate executive of T3Advisors Roy Hirshland also went on to comment, I think Bostons mayor is hoping the growth of the technology community will help keep students and start-ups here, so they can stay in the urban core and grow, and I firmly believe that is going to happen.
DivcoWest has certainly taken notice of this trend, as Wallace then shared, Boston has always been a strong performer and were seeing the most robust growth occur in those particular markets. The exact properties eyed by DivcoWest that have been reported are four buildings on Congress Street in the Seaport District that total upwards of $105 Million, and the property on First Street in Cambridge which is a 220,000 Davenport office building for $79 Million purchased in March of 2012. Finally and just around the corner from the last property, DivcoWest also has aspirations of securing a deal for the former Middlesex County Courthouse, a twenty-two story building.
As these proposals by DivcoWest come to fruition and the redevelopment of them to meet their tech company tenants needs are up to standard, Boston will once again be stepping into the right direction to becoming one of if not the technology hub in the United States. It must be noted, however, that there are still expected to be other types of companies from non-tech industries such as engineering, construction, architecture and more. We look forward to keeping up on these transformative developments in and around our city of Boston.
