Millennium (Hayward) Place | 580 Washington Street | Downtown

Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

Padre Mike said:
The interior courtyard facades are the best part of this building. Why they choose black glass and mullions on already-dark Washington St. is beyond me. The windows would have worked better in bright chrome or brushed nickle (see the new windows on the Colonnade Hotel and how they improved an otherwise crappy facade.
Click to expand...

IMHO the windows are dead sexy. The horizontality just works well with the building's mass, and the Roman brick (precast deficiencies aside) keeps it coming. The black is quite refreshing.

With regard to those ribbon windows in the building's buttcrack, I got nothin. KZ's photo is great.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

^ Agree with everything you wrote. The windows are hawt.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

Hutchison said:
Herald reports 51% sold. Good news for Filenes?

http://bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/2013/03/millennium_place_condos_half_sold
Click to expand...

Really not related at all, as far as I can discern. Remember, Vornado is still technically (and truly) the owner at Filene's (although you'd think that would change eventually for a variety of reasons...) It's a totally separate LLC thus a completely different balance sheet for the Filene's project and no relationship. But that 51% sold number seems pretty amazing...
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

Actually it is related to the Filene's project in the sense that it indicates a very robust market for new condo units in DTX, of all places! I would be very anxious to get more new units for sale (rather than rent) in the development pipeline if I were a developer right now. Just sayin'!!
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

They are certainly related on a macro level.
The pro forma for the Filene's building looks much better (and is therefore much easier to finance, green light) if you can show comparable sales that moved quickly at a high $/sf.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

Out of curiosity, is it standard practice for condo units to go on sale only after the building is under construction?

I know with the condo boom in Toronto, most (if not all) condo towers go on sale prior to construction (at reduced, pre-construction prices) and use the upfront sales to help finance the cost of construction. This is what is helping to fuel the high foreign ownership rates in the city (only 50-60% of condos are owner-occupied, the rest being bought by investors, many from overseas). Some of the larger development companies have even gone so far as to set up presentation centres for their projects in cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong, so that prospective buyers can do everything without even stepping foot in Canada.

Are there rules preventing those kinds of pre-construction sales from taking place in the States? I didn't really start paying attention to real estate and building practices until after I moved to Canada.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

AmericanFolkLegend said:
They are certainly related on a macro level.
The pro forma for the Filene's building looks much better (and is therefore much easier to finance, green light) if you can show comparable sales that moved quickly at a high $/sf.
Click to expand...

I think you are quite mistaken. Millennium tower cannot proceed until the huge office & retail tenants needed for the Burnham building are locked in a delivering income stream to underwrite the Millennium Tower financing. Yes, the overall downtown condo market is hot, but the particular requirements of the Burnham building and how it's tethered to Millennium Tower really eclipse the so-called "macro"
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

I think you are quite mistaken. Millennium tower cannot proceed until ...
Click to expand...

Where did I say the success of MPIII equates to the Millenium Tower being built? They are related on a macro level. And the pro forma does look better with higher residential rents.
I don't know how this building was underwritten. There may be a series of dominoes that need to fall before the tower rises (office tenants, retail tenants, hotel flag, value engineering, tax breaks, etc.) But, are you seriously arguing that the strength of the luxury residential market in downtown Boston has no relationship to the prospects of a luxury residential development in downtown Boston?
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

erikyow said:
Out of curiosity, is it standard practice for condo units to go on sale only after the building is under construction?
Click to expand...

In my experience true "spec" condo developments on a large scale are quite rare. I worked on a condo tower development (Jacksonville, FL) in 2007. Our debt financing was contingent of having 50% presales (non-refundable deposits). I understand prior to 2007 the presale hurdle had been much lower but credit was tightening up at that point.
I suppose you could get away without presales if you don't need debt; have adequate collateral for the debt; or were willing to pay a very high price for the debt.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

AmericanFolkLegend said:
Where did I say the success of MPIII equates to the Millenium Tower being built? They are related on a macro level. And the pro forma does look better with higher residential rents.
I don't know how this building was underwritten. There may be a series of dominoes that need to fall before the tower rises (office tenants, retail tenants, hotel flag, value engineering, tax breaks, etc.) But, are you seriously arguing that the strength of the luxury residential market in downtown Boston has no relationship to the prospects of a luxury residential development in downtown Boston?
Click to expand...

No, I quite agree with you--but I'm just saying those dominoes are more important than you may realize. To me, at this moment, they are the catalyzing agent, whereas the sizzling residential market is the background context.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

I guess having five Legals in the Seaport, plus one at Long Wharf and one at Copley isn't enough. We need more saturation.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

Yeah, this is a total facepalm.

(There's also one in Park Square btw)
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

BostonUrbEx said:
I guess having five Legals in the Seaport, plus one at Long Wharf and one at Copley isn't enough. We need more saturation.
Click to expand...

Not only that Legal Seafood has become 2nd rate with the quaility of their food.

Capital Grille continues to have great food especially the downtown Providence location.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

datadyne007 said:
Yeah, this is a total facepalm.

(There's also one in Park Square btw)
Click to expand...

Ah, Park Sq is the one I meant to say. Easily walking distance, really.

But then there are in fact 1 or 2 over in the Prudential Center area.

Also, there's one in every Airport Terminal.

As Riflemen said, they're not even that good anymore. They're more like Illegal Seafoods at this point.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

Stop complaining about EVERYTHING
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

I never, ever, had a bad meal at Legal!! Matter of fact, the one time when we had poor service and 2 out of 10 people had their meals served late, we wrote to Corporate and every single couple/family there was sent a $250 gift certificate! Yeah, that's a company that really sucks, isnt it!
I personally think it's great news!
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

atlantaden said:
I never, ever, had a bad meal at Legal!! Matter of fact, the one time when we had poor service and 2 out of 10 people had their meals served late, we wrote to Corporate and every single couple/family there was sent a $250 gift certificate! Yeah, that's a company that really sucks, isnt it!
I personally think it's great news!
Click to expand...

For the money Legals is very pricey. I would rather spend my personal money at the Capital Grille at the moment. Sorry I think Legals got way to corporate.

Love this comment "They're more like Illegal Seafoods at this point."
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

On the downside, it's another corporate chain restaurant downtown. But on the upside, it's a locally based corporate chain restaurant. So at least we can count on a greater share of dollars spent there to be reinvested locally.

Optimally, a similarly high end restaurant that's one-of-a-kind would be best here. Imagine if Locke Ober could've gone here.
 
Re: Millennium Place III | Hayward Place

I can't complain about this at all. DTX needs more established anchors to make it viable for smaller businesses. Going with a local chain is the best possible course of action.

It's not Red Lobster, it's not CVS, it's not a cell phone store.

The area needs a critical mass of long-term, high-volume quality retail / restaurant tenants. Would some awesome independent restaurant be cool, too? Sure. But odds are, it would be gone within five years. Legal is probably in for the long haul.

DTX needs tenants that are going to stick around, bring in a lot of foot traffic and not be a generic national chain. You can nitpick Legal's prices and menu all day, and I have, but at the end of the day they're pretty good, very local and extremely popular.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top