Avalon Exeter | 77 Exeter Street | Back Bay

Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

hey jimbojones, would you mind posting the article from Banker & Tradesman on the front page about luxury condo sales?
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

I'll make my usual contrarian post: If the neighborhood and the developer already agreed on a previous design, why should the developer not build what was previously agreed?
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

I'll leave it to our skilled moderator to figure out if this should be posted elsewhere ...

Hub?s Condo Market Enjoys Life of Luxury

Sales of ultra-luxury condominiums in downtown Boston are soaring.

A total of 81 condos with price tags of $2 million or more were sold through October, 37 percent higher than the same period in 2006. Sales are even more brisk than the same months in 2005, when the Bay State housing market hit its peak, according to statistics from The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman.

Pumping up sales are some of the city?s newest luxury properties, including the Residences at InterContinental at 500 Atlantic Ave. Fifteen of the 81 $2 million-plus units that have been sold, nearly 19 percent, are part of that 130-unit waterfront development.

Local brokers say demand from suburban empty nesters and foreign investors is keeping sales strong.

?Boston is a city that still has a great deal of international appeal. With the falling dollar, one of the benefits of it can be the luxury residential market,? said Mark Lippolt, executive vice president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage New England.

Notable sales include a 14-room condo at 25 Commonwealth Ave. in the Back Bay area that fetched more than $8.22 million in March, and a four-bedroom unit at 171 Commonwealth Ave. that traded for $7.12 million in June.

While sales jumped, properties in that price range took about a month longer to sell.

Units sold during the first 10 months of 2007 took an average of 189 days to sell ? a little over six months ? compared to a 153-day average a year earlier, according to MLS Property Information Network.

Still, Realtors say buyers have found Boston?s full-service buildings that feature doormen, parking and other sought-after amenities enticing.

?This is what people really want,? said Beth Dickerson, who has over 18 years of experience selling real estate in Boston?s tony neighborhoods.

Because of the competition from newer upscale condos that boast such amenities, some sellers of older units are slashing prices by as much as 10 percent to move their properties.

A three-bedroom, three-bath condo at 65 Commonwealth Ave. that was originally listed for $2.8 million at the beginning of 2006 and re-listed at $2.49 million in July eventually sold for $2.14 million.

Dickerson, an agent with Gibson Sotheby?s International Realty, said the condo lacked central air conditioning and parking, a tough sell when newly built luxury units featuring both are available.

?It?s a very tough time for people who are trying to compete with these new projects,? said Dickerson.

Another unit at 67 Mount Vernon St. on Beacon Hill sold for $2.02 million ? 18 percent lower than the

$2.47 million asking price ? after seven months on the market.

But Dickerson said drastic price cuts and special incentives haven?t been widespread.

International Demand

Jeffrey Heighton, who manages the Back Bay and Beacon Hill offices of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, said Boston?s high-end market has been helped by a pickup in sales activity in affluent communities like Brookline, Newton, Wellesley and Weston.

Home sales are trending higher in those four communities compared to a year ago, giving an extra push for buyers in those towns considering a downtown move.

And even though prices have declined in many markets, Heighton said many people searching for multimillion-dollar condos have a lot of built-up home equity. ?They can afford to take 5 [percent] to 10 percent less [on their home] if they feel they can get a good opportunity downtown,? he said.

Another booster for 2007 sales was the big bonuses financial services and Wall Street firms doled out last year. ?We saw an immediate impact in Boston,? from those bonuses, said Heighton.

Heighton said brokers are closely watching foreign investment in the city. Economies in some western European countries are booming and the weakening U.S. dollar is encouraging foreign investors. ?We?re seeing a lot of South American and Irish money,? said Heighton.

Some foreign purchasers are also drawn to full-service luxury properties, which aren?t common in Europe. ?Clearly, there?s been a demand from the international buyers for full-service living,? said Heighton.

It?s not just foreign investors and empty nesters who are seeking Boston condos. Dickerson said she has sold to families who have combined multiple condos for more living space.

?People that were typically looking at only single-family homes to raise their children are now looking at combination units,? she said.

Dickerson and other industry watchers anticipate sales of super-luxury condos will be even higher next year when units under agreement at the Mandarin Oriental property and other projects actually close. The Mandarin Oriental, a 13-story mixed-used building featuring a 5-star hotel and 50 condos with prices starting at $3 million, is set to open next year. Realtors say units at that property have pre-sold by word of mouth.

Other lavish properties in the works are The Clarendon, a mix of 350 apartments and condos at the corner of Clarendon and Stuart streets, and 45 Province, a 32-story tower with 138 condos in Downtown Crossing that will open in 2009.

?I think you?ll continue see the number of luxury sales climb year over year, and demand will drive how many more of these projects will continue to be built,? Heighton said.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

thanks, jimbojones
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

?They will cast big shadows on Boylston Street, exacerbate an already traffic-choked section of the city and destroy the light and the views.?
that's what she cares about
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

I feel as though the office building should remain the height that was agreed to, just five years ago. It seems realistic, to me.

The residential tower is another story. I am all for following the rules, but there's no reason that lot can't be built on, as high as possible. That street gets NO traffic, currently, plus it has an effect on very few people's views. In fact, it's the perfect location.

Can they switch the two buildings?
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

"that street gets NO traffic"

? ..that stretch of Exeter gets tons of traffic. Cars go flying through the intersection with Boylston on their way to the Huntington Ave. intersection, where there's almost always a queue six vehicles deep waiting for the light.
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

Get a load of these selfless people..

Trouble in paradise

By Steve Bailey
Globe Columnist / November 23, 2007

Pity the poor urban millionaires of Trinity Place.

Things have gotten so bad over at the swank Copley Square condo tower that the owner of the double penthouse unit, priced at $15 million, the highest in Boston condo history, had to take it off the market after it sat there, unwanted, for six months. Instead, reports the Boston Condo Blog, the owner is offering one of the units - 11 rooms, five full baths, two fireplaces - at the bargain price of $7 million.

Tough times at the seven-year-old Trinity Place, indeed. But it gets worse, much worse.

Now Boston Properties wants to build an ugly 30-story apartment building at the Prudential Center that will block the views and cast shadows over their ugly 18-story Trinity Place. The urban millionaires are beside themselves.

"To approve their project as is would be nothing short of criminal to those of us who live in this neighborhood," William F. Thompson, a founder of Boston Ventures, fumed in a letter to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Wrote Davida Stocklan, whose husband, Martin, is a Smith Barney executive: "It should not be difficult to understand that residents of Trinity Place are not interested in having the basic nature of their investments destroyed by diminished light and obstructed views."

And on and on. The Trinity millionaires have launched a letter-writing campaign in hopes of blocking Boston Properties' proposed 200-unit apartment building on Exeter Street over the Prudential garage and just beside the Lenox Hotel. They worry about traffic. They worry about shadows and wind. They worry about their property values. They worry about the character of their neighborhood.

"I am very concerned with the overdevelopment of the Back Bay," wrote Khalid Nooruddin. "This building will no doubt not only be an eyesore, but will also present major traffic problems, unwanted additional shading and dangerous wind tunnels."

In addition to the apartment building, Boston Properties wants to build a glass office building at the Boylston Street entrance to Pru Center. Together with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Residences, now nearing completion though tens of millions over budget, the construction would finally "complete" the Pru Center, or so says Boston Properties.

The company has approval to build an 11-story office building, but now insists it needs 19 stories. It is just getting started on the process for the apartment building. The two projects are drawing heavy fire from many of the usual suspects in the Back Bay who are ever vigilant - and appropriately so - about their neighborhood.

Tom Menino never met a big building he didn't like. The mayor's reasoning is straightforward enough: Big buildings pay more taxes than small buildings. Menino has spent years systematically killing the character that makes Boston so special by planting big, ugly buildings everywhere. Now there is a "shooting" in their own neighborhood, and the good people of Trinity Place are shocked. What a shock.

The Pru is as appropriate as any place in the city for height, and there remains ample room for compromise on both buildings. Should the apartment building be 30 stories? Or would 20 stories be better, given its historic neighbors, the Lenox and the Boston Public Library? One plus: Boston Properties promises 25 percent of the units will be set aside as affordable in the building or elsewhere at the Pru. At Trinity, "affordable" means a one-bedroom condo listed at $750,000.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/11/23/trouble_in_paradise/
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

Hmmm I wonder why every building in Boston is so ugly. Ah I know, it's because every good looking building is shot down thanks to retarded reason such as shadows. Maybe if they can shut the hell up sometimes, they would have other better developers that chose not to build in Boston thanks to outspoken NIMBYs to design new towers in Boston.

Sometimes I just want to email some of these people and tell them to go live in the suburbs. The city is definitely not for them
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

Steve Bailey said:
Menino has spent years systematically killing the character that makes Boston so special by planting big, ugly buildings everywhere. Now there is a "shooting" in their own neighborhood, and the good people of Trinity Place are shocked.
Click to expand...

Wha?

Can someone lend me their Steve Bailey decoder ring so I can decipher the meaning of that last sentence?

And speaking of "big, ugly buildings", the loudest opponents of these proposals happen to live in some of the absolute ugliest big, ugly buildings in Boston. The apartment towers in the Pru look plucked right out of Soviet-era Warsaw. And Trinity Place is even worse because of its location. The 20-story concrete-paneled heap disgraces the BPL, Trinity Church & Copley Sq with its tacky cheapness.

I'm all for anything that will obscure these eyesores from view. A brick wall would be an improvement.
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

can someone head over to the Globe's headquarters to slap that smug smile off Steve Bailey's face?
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

Re: Soviet Era Warsaw buildings: ?And speaking of "big, ugly buildings", the loudest opponents of these proposals happen to live in some of the absolute ugliest big, ugly buildings in Boston. The apartment towers in the Pru look plucked right out of Soviet-era Warsaw. And Trinity Place is even worse because of its location. The 20-story concrete-paneled heap disgraces the BPL, Trinity Church & Copley Sq with its tacky cheapness.??.

No Senator -- I've recently seen the worst of the Soviet era buildings in Warsaw and the Pru Center apartments aren?t even close to the worst of the Soviet era buildings in Warsaw. In fact they more closely resemble the post Soviet-era apartments and condos that have proliferated in Warszawa, Krakow, Gdańsk, etc., and most of the new EU Poland.

However, the idea of surrounding such structures with better buildings is also well underway in Warsaw. In particular, there is the ultimate Soviet era structure, the circa 1955 PAŁAC KULTURY I NAUKI{Palace of Culture and Science} or PKiN. PKiN is a massive Pru-scale complex {1.3 m sq ft total} consisting of a H-shaped footprint low rise sitting in the midst of a full and large city block with some parking lots and gardens with fountains surmounted by a Pru-height skyscraper {230.68 meters or 756.82 feet}. PKiN is considered Poland's highest building and features 42 floors, a very large, very high clock {EU?s and possibly the world?s highest tower clock dial that was installed for the Millenium}, some huge neon signs, a lot of Soviet Realist sculpture, some similar murals and some art deco-style brasswork.

The PKiN really was ?built for the people of Poland by the People of the USSR? -- the workers were brought from the USSR and lived in a camp outside of Warsaw. Unofficially it is known as ?the Gift? and less politically correctly as Stalin?s Penis. Since the end of Communist rule of Poland ? the private sector with the encouragement of the Warsaw City and Polish government has been busy building a bunch of modern similar height towers {although unofficially they have to be slightly shorter} that are gradually making the Gift less visible. There is a joke similar to one I?ve heard about the Pru ? ?why is the Gift the ideal place to live? The answer: It has the best view in the City as it is the one place from which you can?t see the Gift.?

If you want to see some views of and from it ? try:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Palace_of_Culture_and_Science
or its official website {complete with impressive multimedia {particularly in the Polish version} that the Pru could emulate}:
www.pkin.pl/
or the view from the top:
www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/3996...ultury__Warsaw_Palace_of_Culture_and_Science_

Westy
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

I always liked the massing of the Stalin "wedding cake" buildings such as the MSU main tower. In the early morning mist it has a fairytale quality. I would be happy to exchange most of the pre-1980 high rises in Boston for the stylistic equivalent. If you want a better analog to the Prudential Center residential buildings, try driving past the Gorbals in Glasgow. I don't recommend stopping.
 
Re: Prudential Ctr/Exeter St Apartment Tower

The Prudential Tower was the third tallest building outside New York City at the time of its construction, topped by only Moscow State University and .... the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. (Source: this list)
 
Re: New Tower(s) Planned For Prudential Center

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Re: New Tower(s) Planned For Prudential Center

The Exeter Tower looks like a mini Filene's tower. The designs are okay but the 888 Boylston design definitely looks better if it was actually a real tower.
 
Re: New Tower(s) Planned For Prudential Center

The ass of Exeter (last pic) is terrible. I thought they'd try to unify a little more with Lenox and the existing residences, but whatever. It's fine.

I'm really in love with the first pic though--looking down at 888 from across the street. The redesigned entrance to the Boylston Arcade, etc. Very nice.

I do pity the diners at the table right there. The wind is awful coming off the pike and up Boylston. Maybe some of that will be mitigated with the Hynes remodel and hardscape/landscape.
 
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