The New Residential Conversion Thread

Right, a couple of the early conversion projects were in buildings that I consider to be second class (not Class B, lol) or look to be poorly built. 281 Franklin I think was one of them. I don't know what it looks like inside and the exterior looks fine but if I remember correctly, it was sold before the conversion and the new owners had no experience doing residential housing so I figured this conversion "scheme" was gonna be seen as a "get rich quick" scheme.

Obviously not when we have companies such as Synergy coming in (or are they going out) and the size of the developments are surprising, to say the least.

Yes, the conversions could take .. years? But if you suddenly plop down 1,000 units over a period of 3-5 years, well that's pretty darn good. (Reminds me of another location in Boston where housing suddenly popped up ..)

PS. Justbuildit .. did you mean that 20% of the housing is .. affordable .. not "residential"?
 
Yes, yes. Affordable (edited that comment).

Synergy is leading the 250 Washington conversion and maybe some more. Haven't been inside any of the conversion but the first ones are just coming online. The Summer/Melcher project has been underway for a few months and the 281 Franklin project started leasing last year (pics in the B&T article below). Again, it's not going to solve issues across Mass but will make use of these super soft commercial assets that are just sitting there vacant anyways.

bankerandtradesman.com

Watch: Wu Welcomes First Residents of Downtown Office Conversion

The first residents of the first downtown Boston office building converted to apartments with city tax incentives have moved in.
bankerandtradesman.com bankerandtradesman.com
 
This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Patrick Mahoney is the owner. This is from the LOI.

How do you get the name of the owner wrong??? (see the "owner & proponent). There is no 21 Post Office Square LLC.

OMG, they misspelled Article??!

Also, who is Patrick Mahoney?

1769804150613.png
 
Justbuildit said:
Synergy is leading the 250 Washington conversion and maybe some more.
Click to expand...

Note, you confused 250 Washington with 294 Washington. 250 Washington was the address for the Devonshire apartment tower's office podium. As you can see here, 294 Washington is Synergy's residential conversion project, but 250 Washington (which, again, is to say, 1 Devonshire office podium) is Ruben Companies, the preexisting 1 Devonshire owner.

The screenshot I'm embedding here is extracted from this, which I admittedly haven't scrutinized but others here may find it worthwhile to study: https://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/856cb52b-2555-4de3-be2e-22c333736146

Untitled.jpg
 
Looking at this list there are a few that jump out, notably 112 State Street, or the Richard Building. It's an ornamental cast-iron fronted building near the intersection with Congress and a rare well-maintained cast iron building downtown. I can't find the filing on BPDAs website or elsewhere. Anyone have info on that? There are a couple references on articles summarizing the program but no public filings.

It's Landmarked and so wasn't under threat of demolition, but it's a really significant architectural building and would be a cool place to live.

www.boston.gov

Richards Building Study Report

The ca. 1858 Richards Building at 112-116 State Street is the oldest remaining cast iron-front structure in Boston’s central business district. The Richards Building has local, state, and regional significance for its associations with the growth of real estate development and investment by...
www.boston.gov www.boston.gov
 
DBM said:
Note, you confused 250 Washington with 294 Washington. 250 Washington was the address for the Devonshire apartment tower's office podium. As you can see here, 294 Washington is Synergy's residential conversion project, but 250 Washington (which, again, is to say, 1 Devonshire office podium) is Ruben Companies, the preexisting 1 Devonshire owner.

The screenshot I'm embedding here is extracted from this, which I admittedly haven't scrutinized but others here may find it worthwhile to study: https://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/856cb52b-2555-4de3-be2e-22c333736146

View attachment 70414
Click to expand...
1517 units for those lazy to do the math.
 
129 Portland is listed as under construction. I work next to 129 Portland, some time ago there was some rehab activity, but I haven't seen any activity in months. For many weeks now if you walk by the door you can hear the fire alarm or alarm system going off from the sidewalk. The alarm has been going off for many weeks nonstop. Not loud enough to disturb those in neighboring buildings but you can hear it from the sidewalk when you walk past the door.
 
I have to correct myself, the day after I posted that there has been no activity at 129 Portland, I did see two construction workers at the site today! Not a lot of activity though, they were walking in and out and seemed to be hauling stuff out for an hour or two.
 

50 Congress Street​

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“Convert existing office building located at 50 Congress Street to 169 residential apartment units, including 17% Inclusionary Zoning units and an additional 3% market-rate units reserved for voucher holders, plus approximately 7,371 square feet of ground-floor retail or restaurant space, pursuant to the Downtown Office to Residential Conversion Pilot Program.”

50 Congress Street | Bostonplans.org

Development Projects and Planned Development Areas (PDAs) that the Development Review division is coordinating.
www.bostonplans.org www.bostonplans.org
 
awood91 said:
They are residential towers with a tiny fraction of the complex that is office. Now they are going to convert that tiny fraction of office into residential.
Click to expand...
I think its the base that is office right? The towers are built on a podium. I hope they change the exterior a bit to make them look like vancouver style podium condos, that would be sweet.

Something kinda like this though this base is taller.
1773865228687.jpeg

Link
 
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