401 Park Drive (née Landmark Center) | Fenway

The city should nix the next stage unless it goes back to residential.
 
DZH22 said:
2/26 First building is a bit sloppier than I expected, on top of being overly wide. The whole scale of the city is starting to feel thrown off with these huge labs. Only in Boston do we scream about height while signing off on every building that's as wide as a football field.
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Yes! I totally agree. The city is more than starting to be "thrown off" by these types of cartoonishly over-scaled, oafish buildings. It's been thoroughly disfigured at this point. These buildings are everywhere you turn in Boston. They look like they have been transported from an alternately scaled reality where everyone is 12' tall and the buildings are detailed like Playskool toys. They're completely incongruous with the rest of the city's fabric, evoking a sense of irreconcilable tension. The effect, to me, is extremely unpleasant, and ugly.

My question is, what is the rationale for this goofy scaling thing? It is so commonplace today that I have to assume it's part of some explicit design philosophy. Or maybe they are just trying to create aesthetically discordant cityscapes? These buildings have been so prevalent during this latest building boom. Sadly, they've already dramatically altered the city's character.
 
Beantropolis said:
Yes! I totally agree. The city is more than starting to be "thrown off" by these types of cartoonishly over-scaled, oafish buildings. It's been thoroughly disfigured at this point. These buildings are everywhere you turn in Boston. They look like they have been transported from an alternately scaled reality where everyone is 12' tall and the buildings are detailed like Playskool toys. They're completely incongruous with the rest of the city's fabric, evoking a sense of irreconcilable tension. The effect, to me, is extremely unpleasant, and ugly.

My question is, what is the rationale for this goofy scaling thing? It is so commonplace today that I have to assume it's part of some explicit design philosophy. Or maybe they are just trying to create aesthetically discordant cityscapes? These buildings have been so prevalent during this latest building boom. Sadly, they've already dramatically altered the city's character.
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The rationale is primarily an excel sheet that the developer then uses to tell the architect the only thing that's going to sell and make us money is a large floor plate.

It's also the developer's lack-of-will (and Samuel's is a really good developer at that) to deter from the pro-forma, since their lender will probably pull out if they can't meet X% return in Y years, as well as zoning and policy.

Simplifying it down to 2 sentences, but it's not some Architect's mission to break up the aesthetics of the skyline and cityscape.
 
Stefal, I was not criticizing the size of the buildings' floor plates (which are another issue), but the scale at which their facades are arranged. I'm talking about the seemingly reflexive tendency for architects to lamely try to disguise a building as one half (or a third, or a quarter -- or all at the same time like this one) its size by blowing up the scale of the building's exterior elements. This phenomena can be observed not only on this building, 201 Brookline Ave., but also on nearly every new large development that has gone up in the city in recent years. My currently most loathed example is Parcel 12, for its sheer prominence.

Amazingly to me, no one seems to notice or be bothered by this. Also, I always thought this was a strictly Bostonian development, but I'm now noticing it in new developments in cities all over the U.S., and the U.K. But, it does seem far more prevalent here, unfortunately. There does seem to be a growing awareness of this design tactic, however, a variation of which I've recently seen referred to as the Las Vegas Window Trick. Hopefully this increases the likelihood that people will demand an end to this awful design trend.
 
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Im glad they chose this slightly altered (and slightly better) twin to be built here vs what was proposed before. Landmark center is an art deco masterpiece so unless they were going to build some art deco tower on top its best to add a couple towers that are nice background buildings that emphasize landmark center as the centerpiece. I think using two black industrial looking mid rises really allows it to shine through. Black was a really good choice for a background color here.

This really lets landmark center shine through
Landmark-Center-Phase-III


Vs this which was a whole lot of meh..
newlandmark.jpg


They really pulled it together.
 
Toast, which leases 133k sf of space, is paying a hefty sum, $16 million, to break their lease several years early and begin vacating its space. By the end of 2024, they should be completely gone. Supposedly they're going to look for new space elsewhere in the city.
 
mass88 said:
Toast, which leases 133k sf of space, is paying a hefty sum, $16 million, to break their lease several years early and begin vacating its space. By the end of 2024, they should be completely gone. Supposedly they're going to look for new space elsewhere in the city.
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Why?
 
curcuas said:
Why?
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News:
www.wcvb.com

Restaurant tech company says it'll stay in Boston after breaking lease

Toast is going to pay $16 million to break its lease in a Fenway neighborhood landmark about 5 years early, but says it plans to find other space in the city.
www.wcvb.com www.wcvb.com

One can only assume they're downsizing in terms of space. Very limited PR released thus far (though assuming more will be forthcoming). From above link:
On Wednesday, Toast's head of communications and public relations, Robin Woodcock, issued a statement saying the company is now looking for a new home in Boston.
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Maybe a combination of them desiring to consolidate space w/ hybrid/remote work, etc, combined with maybe the landlord offering them a deal on a buyout? The new landlord is biotech specialist Alexandria, for what that's worth.
 
$16M seems like a high penalty to break a lease but with the amount of high quality space on the market for sublease (Verizon at North Station comes to mind as one big example), wouldn’t be shocked if it makes sense to take advantage of potentially much lower rent available at other buildings.
 
awood91 said:
$16M seems like a high penalty to break a lease but with the amount of high quality space on the market for sublease (Verizon at North Station comes to mind as one big example), wouldn’t be shocked if it makes sense to take advantage of potentially much lower rent available at other buildings.
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It looks like Toast is paying about $15.7 million to buy out of a commitment to 111,294 SF on the 8th floor for 6.5 years plus 22,495 SF on the 5th floor for 5 years. That works out to a $/sf buyout rate of $18.73 per year. There are also provisions in the agreement that if the landlord lands a new tenant for the space during the time Toast would have occupied it, then Toast gets a portion of their $15.7 million buyout refunded.

The original lease plus 7 amendments were signed over the period of 2015 - 2021. There’s a decent chance Toast was on the hook for lease payments in the area $65 - $70 per sf per year. If they were paying $65 per sf, they’ll be saving about $38.7 million with the buyout relative to seeing the lease through.

Presumably they’ll consolidate into their smaller space on the 5th floor that they’re keeping through the end of next year after vacating their larger space on the 8th floor at the end of next month. If they can find space for 2025-2029 for less than that $38.7 million (putting aside their IRR and any possible refunds - which work in opposite directions in the calculation - for now) they’ll come out ahead on this deal. That’s very likely if they’ve determined that they’ll only need, say, max 50k SF of space going forward, given work from home trends.
 
I honestly think we're going to see a lot of moves like this over the next couple of years. I think we need to consider not only the WFH/hybrid trends, but also the fact that many tech companies grew very rapidly from 2015-2021 with some inevitable overshoot given that no one knew exactly where things were going. It was one of the hottest stretches of tech company expansion on record. In a different office market, companies who overshot might be stuck living with a suboptimal situation. But now it is clearly a lessee's market. So it seems natural that there will be efforts like this (in collaboration with the landlords, who are certainly not oblivious to this reality either) to not only right-size, but also to tailor exactly where/what kind of space to maximize fit for the company. For instance, if Toast is looking for 25-50ksft, they have their choice of prime spots literally right on top of the largest transit hubs in the region (at North or South stations). Which is not to say that Fenway is a bad spot or poorly connected, all things considered, but the name of the game now is "why not shift to the more perfect spot." Fenway is right next to Longwood Medical Area. It honestly makes more sense for biotech related work than general software work; that's presumably why Alexandria bought this whole facility and is clearly shifting it to be more of a biotech campus - which is being validated by Children's Hospital's interest in a large amount of lab space directly adjacent to Toast's space (article). So if 2015 - 2020 was a mad rush for any space, today is very much a "don't settle for less than a perfect match" type period. Just my take; I think we'll see a few others make similar moves.
 
bigpicture7 said:
I honestly think we're going to see a lot of moves like this over the next couple of years. I think we need to consider not only the WFH/hybrid trends, but also the fact that many tech companies grew very rapidly from 2015-2021 with some inevitable overshoot given that no one knew exactly where things were going. It was one of the hottest stretches of tech company expansion on record. In a different office market, companies who overshot might be stuck living with a suboptimal situation. But now it is clearly a lessee's market. So it seems natural that there will be efforts like this (in collaboration with the landlords, who are certainly not oblivious to this reality either) to not only right-size, but also to tailor exactly where/what kind of space to maximize fit for the company. For instance, if Toast is looking for 25-50ksft, they have their choice of prime spots literally right on top of the largest transit hubs in the region (at North or South stations). Which is not to say that Fenway is a bad spot or poorly connected, all things considered, but the name of the game now is "why not shift to the more perfect spot." Fenway is right next to Longwood Medical Area. It honestly makes more sense for biotech related work than general software work; that's presumably why Alexandria bought this whole facility and is clearly shifting it to be more of a biotech campus - which is being validated by Children's Hospital's interest in a large amount of lab space directly adjacent to Toast's space (article). So if 2015 - 2020 was a mad rush for any space, today is very much a "don't settle for less than a perfect match" type period. Just my take; I think we'll see a few others make similar moves.
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The future will be won by the Smart Cities and lost by the Dumb Cities.

The Smart Cities will see the very clear handwriting on the wall, and as quickly and efficiently as possible, convert office buildings (the 12-20% or so that can be converted) to residential buildings and will aggressively build new residential towers to house the demographic explosion of empty-nest baby boomer retirees with discretionary money who want to live in dynamic urban environments with walking distance restaurants/theatres/medical centers/museums, etc. without the burden of home maintenance and automobile ownership responsibilities.

The Dumb Cities will simply continue to try to force the square peg of office workers into the round hole, like Mayor Wu did last year with the Downtown Free Doughnut days (or whatever the hell they called it). There are signs that Mayor Wu is beginning to get it and I think she is very smart. I am hopeful Boston is one of the Smart Cities, because it already has an incredible advantage. People with high tax revenue potential are climbing over themselves to get in. Don't blow the potential 24/7 city by lamenting the 9 to5 office buildings.

24/7 > 9-5........ Learn it, live it, love it.
 
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Equilibria said:
www.bostonglobe.com

Boston Childrenâs to move into new Fenway lab - The Boston Globe

Stories you may have missed from the world of business.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

So Children's Hospital is buying 49% of this and then immediately selling it back to Alexandria? Huh?

Are they buying Samuels' stake and selling that to Alexandria? Carlock is a solid reporter, but this doesn't make sense.
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Yeah, I am generally a Carlock fan too, but this hyper abbreviated take leaves more questions than answers. If I had to venture a guess, I think you are onto something with this having to do with an ownership transfer from Samuels to Alexandria. Completely guessing, but I wonder if the end game is Alexandria owning and managing the lab facility (i.e., what Children's wants since Alexandria's a seasoned lab operator), but timing wasn't right for them to cough up $155M, so Children's agreed to act as a pass-through to buy them some time. Maybe Children's is getting some long term benefit for doing so. Also wondering if there's some financial benefit for the transaction to pass through a non profit? Not sure.
 
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