Real Estate Deals

Office rental rates fall in Hub

Average is down 12% as recession forces area firms to cut back
By Casey Ross
Globe Staff / July 10, 2009

Boston?s office market is experiencing the sharpest drop in rental rates in nearly a decade, with the supply of vacant space continuing to increase as employers cut back during the economic slowdown.

Average asking rents in Greater Boston plunged to $28.11 per square foot in the second quarter of 2009, a 12 percent decline from the same period last year, according to Lincoln Property Co., a real estate services firm. Rents are at their lowest level since 2001.

The drop-off is being felt throughout the market, from downtown Boston to the outer suburbs, reflecting the pervasive impact of the recession. Those shedding space include financial and law firms in Boston, pharmaceutical and technology firms along Interstate 495, and Cambridge consulting companies.

?The downturn is much broader and deeper this time,?? said Mike Edward, head of brokerage for Lincoln. ?In 2001, it was the tech sector, but now it?s really spread across all industries.??

Companies are flooding the market with space available for sublease, a measure of the weakness in the real estate market. There is now more than 5.1 million square feet of sublease space across the region, 40 percent more than a year ago, according to the real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

Among newly available space is 134,000 square feet at 100 Federal St. that was used by financial giant Wellington Management and 88,000 square feet at Thomson Place from Cengage Learning Inc., an educational publishing firm. IBM Corp., Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc., and the law firm Ropes & Gray LLP are also trying to lease out blocks of space.

While the market changes are not as extreme as in 2001, real estate specialists said the upheaval is far from over.

?Space is going to continue to come on the market, and rents are going to be flat for three to four years,?? said Joe Sciolla, managing principal of Cresa Partners, an advisory firm that exclusively represents office tenants. ?I don?t see employment coming back right away to substantiate rent growth.??

In the meantime, some firms are taking advantage of the down market to upgrade. ITG Inc., a financial services firm, is moving to 100 High St., a 28-story tower in the Financial District, a significant step up from the pair of low-rise buildings it now occupies on the South Boston Waterfront.

?The timing worked to our advantage,?? said Carolyn Freeland, a spokeswoman for ITG. She declined to disclose the firm?s rent at 100 High St. but indicated ITG was able to benefit from the market conditions.

Edward, the brokerage chief for Lincoln Property, said bargain hunters are bringing the market back to life, but the volume of transactions is still low and will remain so for many months.

?I?m hoping we?ll bottom out in the middle of next year, and then we?ll begin the climb back,?? he said.

Link
 
Dearth of new tenants a drag on office construction

Boston Business Journal - by Michelle Hillman
Friday, September 11, 2009

Developers sidelined last year due to a lack of financing are now blaming another market phenomenon on the lack of progress ? an anemic real estate market sorely lacking in demand from office tenants. Developers with large-scale projects in Boston said even if they could land financing today they would be hard-pressed to find a tenant willing to pay rents that would justify building brand new office space.

?We need demand for new space right now and demand is negative,? said

David Perry, senior vice president of Hines Interests LP, whose company planned to build a mixed-used project with 1.3 million square feet of office space at South Station.

Perry said while obtaining financing remains a challenge, he?s currently in the hunt for tenants. Until he has a signed lease, he is not pursuing lenders for funding.

Boston?s office market has continued to slide downward with a negative absorption rate (the change in the amount of space occupied) of 516,889 square feet in the second quarter, bringing the absorption rate for the first half of the year to negative 1.6 million, according to a second quarter office report from Jones Lang LaSalle. As a result of the market contraction, asking rents in Class A office buildings in downtown Boston decreased 24.6 percent in the past year.

?You can?t even have a conversation with an investor or lender without at least a significant pre-leasing commitment,? Perry said.

Convincing tenants to make the leap into a new building is harder in a recession as sublease space piles up and rents decline. Generally, new office space rents for a premium and few developers are willing to cut rents to build a project. Instead, they will wait out the market.

Developers say the recovery of the financing market and leasing market are tied together, given one is no good without the other. Yet they say there?s no way to predict exactly when that will be.

?My guess is they?ll both come back simultaneously because the capital markets will improve with the responding economy and lenders will be interested in lending when there are tenants to fill space,? said Ronald Druker, president of The Druker Co. Ltd.

Druker is planning a deluxe, 221,000-square-foot office building at the former location of Shreve Crump & Low at 350 Boylston St. Druker recently hired a new architect to change the building?s design in response to community feedback but said he hopes it will be ready in time for a market upswing. The $120 million, nine-story office building includes a doorman, dog walker, a private spa and fitness center, valet parking and concierge services.

?My guess is when we are able to find tenants who are willing to pay rents that are either side of $80 a foot that the capital markets will respond accordingly,? he said.

There are few projects that would be wise to build today, said Douglass Karp of New England Development, whose company is holding off on building Pier 4 ? a 1 million-square-foot hotel, office, housing and retail project on the South Boston waterfront.

?I don?t know that you?d want to build office today, a hotel today or housing today,? said Karp, who believes in the location long term but is not trying to finance Pier 4.

Until space is absorbed it is unlikely any new projects will kick off in Boston. There are currently 67 projects totaling 30 million square feet in the development pipeline, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Of the 30 million square feet in the pipeline, 4.3 million square feet is under construction.

In addition to mounting sublease space, there is 1.2 million square feet of office space headed onto the market in the next two years when the office towers at Fan Pier and Russia Wharf are completed. While both buildings have significant lease commitments, there are existing office towers with large blocks of space to fill that will compete for the same tenants such as One Federal St., which has 469,979 square feet, 200 Clarendon St., which has 452,005 square feet and 100 High St., which has 266,590 square feet, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

It took six to seven years for development to occur after the last real estate bust of the 1990s. Developers are betting it will be nearly five years before a new project gets underway.

?If you asked me when we could start, it?s two to four years with the emphasis on the latter,? said Druker. ?You can?t finance anything today with terms that would be acceptable.?

Link
 
Boston.com - October 13, 2009
New FHA condominium guidelines: a chill in the air
Posted by Rona Fischman October 13, 2009 02:21 PM

Welcome back to Attorney Richard D. Vetstein. Today, he explains the new FHA regulations and how they will put more obstacles in the path of would-be condo buyers.

Under revised guidelines set to go into effect November 2, 2009, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is implementing a new stricter approval process for condominiums to be eligible for FHA financing. Similar in some respects to the new Fannie Mae regulations issued earlier in the year, the FHA guidelines will surely slow down condominium mortgage financing, and negatively impact first time home buyers for condominium units.

For those who don?t know, FHA is a government program designed to help more people buy homes, and more borrowers will qualify with FHA financing than with conventional financing. It is a low down payment (3.5% down) program and the credit standards are much looser. The mortgage rates are typically better, as well.

New Project Eligibility Guidelines
All condominiums (consisting of 2 or more units) must meet the following requirements:
? At least 50% of the units of a project must be owner-occupied or sold.
? Projects must be covered by hazard and liability insurance and, when applicable, flood insurance.
? No more than 15% of units can be in arrears of their condominium fees.
? No more than 25% of the property?s total floor area in a project can be used for commercial purposes.
? A current reserve study must be performed to assure that adequate funds are available for the funding of capital expenditures and maintenance. The regulations don?t define what is ?adequate? but guidance may be found in the new Fannie Mae guidelines which mandate at least 10% of annual operating budget in reserves.
? No more than 10% of the units may be owned by one investor.
? Rights of first refusal are permitted unless they violate discriminatory conduct under the Fair Housing Act.
? An affirmative action-type housing plan is required for both new construction and conversions.
? Previously certified projects must re-apply every 2 years.
? The ?spot approval? process is eliminated in favor of a more comprehensive review process.

The net effect of these new guidelines, combined with the recent Fannie Mae guidelines, is that it will be much tougher to obtain condominium financing as many projects will not be able to pass muster. Condominium associations, trustees, managers, lenders and buyers need to prepare and do a lot more work to approve condominium loans.


Click here for the new FHA condominium guidelines. You can look to see whether a condominium is already approved on the HUD Homes & Communities website located here. Here is the FHA Condominium Mortgage.

I thank Attorney Vetstein again for the great legal information he has been providing on our blog.

Out in the real world, these things have affected mortgages on condos since the FNMA changes took effect:
1. New construction and newly converted condos had closings delayed until the project had sufficient sales.
2. Many, many, many two- and three- family house associations did not have sufficient reserves. Some larger buildings, also, but not as frequently.

Have you experienced delays due to other parts of the FNMA regs? Do you think the FHA measures will be effective in closing one more avenue for risky borrowing practices? Or are all these regulations just more red tape meant to make you jump through hoops for no good reason?
Click to expand...
 
Banker & Tradesman - October 26, 2009
The Swedes Are Here
Construction Giant Skanska Looking To Buy In Boston

By Paul McMorrow

Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer

10/26/09

Skanska, the Swedish construction giant, is scouring the Boston market for new commercial development opportunities. But the company isn?t just trying to take advantage of dislocation in the commercial market. It?s also trying to force a dramatic reappraisal of the way developers look at buildings in the ground, and on their books.

?It?s better to enter when the market is down, rather than at the top of the market,? argued Michael Pascavage, regional manager for Skanska USA Commercial Development. ?There will be good acquisition opportunities in the coming years. We?re a patient company. [Skanska?s] mantra in Europe and Scandinavia is land-banking and long-term, patient development.?

Boston is one of three of Skanska?s 24 American construction markets to get a development unit; the others are Houston and Washington, DC. Pascavage said Skanska is chasing Class A office, institutional, medical, educational, medical and government development work in downtown Boston, Cambridge, 128 West and along the Mass Turnpike.

They?re the submarkets populated by the most likely early-adapters of Skanska?s deep-green development mentality: ?Companies with a more honed level of social consciousness, those that want to lead the pack, with employees mandating their companies do the right thing.?


A Mature Market

Skanska?s American development arm recently inked its first development deal, taking control of a stalled $85 million office project in Washington, DC. In that case, the developer had opened up the ground without financing in place, only to have to halt work. Skanska is resuming construction on spec. In Boston, it?s eyeing similar opportunities ? distressed developments that need a joint venture partner and a capital infusion, or stalled projects whose owners are looking to cash out.

?The Boston market is mature,? Pascavage said. ?A lot of the development sites are encumbered already. It?s not easy to go out and acquire a raw site and do the classic buy, entitle, build and lease. We may be buying opportunities as people look to get rid of assets that may be problematic.?

In Skanska?s view, capital markets? upheaval creates opportunistic buys in the near term; they believe long-term energy and environmental trends mandate building now, while other developers are waiting out the storm.

Noel Morrin, the company?s vice president of sustainability and green construction, told Banker & Tradesman he foresees a sea change coming in building codes and regulations. Morrin, visiting Boston from Skanska?s home office in suburban Stockholm, said developers should assume that future energy prices will rise dramatically, while government bodies will press increasingly stringent energy codes. He said his development arm seeks to develop buildings that are ?future-proof.? His team regularly beats European codes by 50 percent. Those super-efficient buildings will become increasingly valuable as energy and environmental regulations evolve.

However, Morrin said, ?The real challenge is the existing stock. There will be people left behind with portfolios of obsolete buildings.?

?As new technologies come into play, older product becomes outmoded,? Pascavage added. ?The Boston market has a lot of 20-, 30-, 40-year old, less efficient buildings. New product will better represent the full spectrum of sustainability. The older product will either have to respond as best they can, or be relegated to less productive occupancies.?

A Jones Lang LaSalle paper surveyed the Obama administration?s environmental goals ? including reducing carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050, making all new buildings carbon neutral by 2030, and increasing existing buildings? efficiency by 25 percent over the next decade ? and concluded, ?building green from the ground up seems to be the only strategy for sustaining competitive advantage and increasing asset values.?

At a recent NAIOP Massachusetts forum, Seth Jaffe warned that state regulators are almost certain to slap some form of new regulations on commercial properties as they try to meet new mandates to cut emissions by 10 percent to 20 percent by 2020, and 80 percent by 2050. Jaffe, a partner in Foley Hoag?s Boston office and coordinator of the firm?s environmental practice group, said while Massachusetts has yet to articulate just how it will meet those emissions targets, it can?t get close to them by just focusing on cars and power plants.

?It?s going to affect all of us,? Jaffe said. ?It?s going to be buildings as well. We?ll be far beyond LEED before we?re done with all this. They?re going to have to look at existing buildings.? He added, ?Everything you do is going to be subject to increasing regulation, including the buildings you are looking to build, buy, or sell.?

Skanska sees that future, and believes there?s a big opportunity in bringing it into the present.

?We?re in position to exploit long-term trends in green construction and development,? Morrin argued. ?Look at the global drivers. Is the trend your friend??

Skanska took their offices in the Empire State Building to LEED Platinum ? a transformation that led the building?s owners to overhaul the rest of the iconic tower. Morrin called the Empire State job ?kindergarten stuff.? He?s more interested by what he called ?deep green? projects. At a Skanska apartment complex near Stockholm, rooftop solar panels charge up electric cars; every resident gets one, for free. The company is also developing a new zero-net-energy neighborhood in Sweden. In London, it embedded geothermal technology in an office building?s concrete pilings.

?We?ve bought into highly sustainable and deep green design from the development side,? Pascavage said. ?The energy reduction alone, the reduced operating costs, goes straight to your bottom line, and increases the value of the building in an economic sense. Let alone the real benefits accrued from those efforts.?

?We want to show people what?s possible and create a different level of ambition,? Morrin said. ?As just a dumb construction company, we can be as dumb as you want us to be. As owner-developer, then, we really let it rip. We apply whole-life costing. You see very quickly the cost of doing a lot of this is negative. As developer, we?re not worried about the upfront costs. It?s more sending a message that more can be done. We need to challenge the whole system.?
Click to expand...
 
?As new technologies come into play, older product becomes outmoded,? Pascavage added. ?The Boston market has a lot of 20-, 30-, 40-year old, less efficient buildings. New product will better represent the full spectrum of sustainability. The older product will either have to respond as best they can, or be relegated to less productive occupancies.?
Click to expand...

And then these buildings will be knocked down and new ones built in their place so we can have something to talk about.
 
Banker & Tradesman - January 4, 2010
Developers, Landlords Bearish
Readers: 2010 Will Look A Lot Like 2009

By Paul McMorrow

Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer

Today

Debt will be hard to come by on reasonable terms in 2010, retail leasing will hit the skids, and the commercial development outlook will remain bleak, according to respondents to a recent Banker & Tradesman/Bannon & Co. survey.

?2010 will be a year for the solidification of fundamentals, but probably not too many groundbreakings,? said Yanni Tsipis, a senior vice president in the development and advisory services practice at Colliers Meredith & Grew.

More than half of all respondents said none of the four high-profile Boston developments either stalled or in permitting now ? Columbus Center, the Filene?s redevelopment in Downtown Crossing, Raymond Property Co.?s proposed Government Center Garage redevelopment and the Chiofaro Co.?s proposed Harbor Garage redevelopment ? will move forward in 2010.

Just one in five respondents expressed optimism for the Filene?s project, which has been stalled for more than a year now by financing shortfalls. The project suffered a major blow last year, when its would-be anchor tenant, law firm Fish & Richardson, bolted for Fan Pier. Developers Vornado Realty Trust and Gale International have wrapped the construction site and mothballed it for the winter. Last spring, Gale CEO John Hynes told Banker & Tradesman he was shopping designs for a taller, cheaper tower to Asian investors. That search continues.

Tsipis argued that after a tough year for leasing in the city, tenants would need to absorb large chunks of open space at Russia Wharf, 33 Arch, Fan Pier and Two Financial Center before large-scale developers begin to feel bullish again.

Banker & Tradesman readers expect industrial, retail and office development ? already a rare site in 2009 ? to slump further in 2010. Only six percent of survey respondents said they expect industrial and warehouse construction to increase even modestly; that figure is three percent for retail construction, and two percent for office construction.

Wait ?Til Next Year?

Tight pre-leasing requirements and a dramatic slide in rents and commercial values all but iced new construction in 2009, and at a recent NAIOP Massachusetts roundtable, Portfolio & Property Research CEO Bret Wilkerson predicted that office incomes would not trend upward again until 2011. That presumption, on its face, would seem to preclude all construction but build-to-suits (a quietly strong category in 2009).

However, Wilkerson and others have predicted a sharp swing upward in rents from 2011 to 2013. Wilkerson predicted a ?phenomenally interesting and exciting cycle? beginning in 2011, and said Boston is PPR?s top market nationally for forecast rent growth until 2013. But unless the commercial financing environment evolves dramatically, and quickly, few new developments will be in a position to take advantage of that upswing. Eighty-five percent of Banker & Tradesman readers said they believe it is either not very likely or not at all likely that lenders will make commercial development loans available at reasonable terms in 2010.

In addition to the stalled Filene?s tower, two other high-profile Hub developments illustrate the harsh lending terms developers will have to navigate in 2010. Boston Properties had to swallow a tough recourse provision to get a club of five lenders to issue a $215 million construction loan for its Russia Wharf office tower in Boston ? a project substantially pre-leased to Wellington Management. The loan amounts to less than half the tower?s $550 million construction tab. And when a group of three lenders refinanced the new Center for Life Sciences Boston, Biomed Realty Trust?s Longwood research tower, the San Diego-based REIT had to increase its equity position by $150 million, replacing a $500 million construction loan with a $350 million mortgage.

A Changed Landscape

Notably, there appears to be some dissent on pharmaceutical and life sciences research space, one of the few bright spots in the commercial industry. A legion of boldface developers, including the Beal Cos., the Fallon Co., National Development, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have plans on the boards for new lab space developments from Kendall Square to South Boston and Mission Hill.

A full twenty-five percent of survey respondents predicted an increase in new lab construction, though the people with the money disagree. Only 8 percent of readers who identified themselves as bankers said new lab construction would increase this year.

There was near-unanimity on one view, though: The retail leasing landscape looks brutal. Less than 12 percent of readers predicted even a modest increase in retail leasing in 2010, while 59 percent believe retail leasing is in for a fall from already-grim 2009 levels. Twenty percent believe the retail market will see a major decrease from a year that saw Brockton?s Westgate Mall seized for $51 million by its lenders and the Hanover Mall move into special servicing after defaulting on its $87.5 million mortgage. At an Urban Land Institute forum last month, Kenneth Himmel, chief of retail giant Related Urban, said retailers and retail developers are in for a ?long three years.?

?We should all get prepared for a permanently changed landscape,? he added.
Click to expand...
 
http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2010/04/12/daily21.html

Fitch raises concerns over 225 Franklin

Boston?s downtown office tower at 225 Franklin Street is getting some scrutiny from a top credit rating agency that is monitoring the property?s tenant turnover later this year and falling cash flow.

Later this year, two of the building?s largest tenants, law firm Fish & Richardson PC and Deutsche Bank AG, will be vacating 225 Franklin when their leases expire.

The moves coincide with falling rents in Boston?s Financial District, where the first-quarter vacancy rate was nearly 13 percent, Fitch Ratings said in a recent report.

Fitch said average asking rents at 225 Franklin were reported at $29 per square foot, which is in line with the market, but much less than what the building could fetch before the credit crisis. Fitch said the building?s net operating income was 1.68 times debt service at the end of September, compared with 2.08 at the end of 2008.

The 34-story building is collateral on a $225 million interest-only loan held by an affiliate of the Blackstone Group. The loan, originated by LaSalle Bank as part of a refinancing, is current and matures in July 2016, according to the servicer on the loan.

The building was appraised at $442 million in 2006.
Click to expand...
 
Bain Capital will move to Hancock Tower

May 11, 2010 09:29 AM
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff

Bain Capital is moving its offices to the John Hancock Tower, taking nearly 210,000 square feet in one of the most significant lease deals of the last several years.

The move brings the Hancock's occupancy back up to 95 percent, eliminating a large chunk of vacant space that had left the signature tower in tough financial shape following a foreclosure last spring.

Bain Capital, among the region's largest private equity firms, signed a 15-year lease to occupy floors 37 through 43 of the 62-story building starting in the fall of 2011, according to Normandy Real Estate Partners and Five Mile Capital Partners, the joint venture that purchased the Hancock at an auction in March 2009. Bain has an option to expand to 270,000 square feet.

The previous owners, Broadway Partners of New York, defaulted on some of its debt after it lost key tenants as the office market started to nose-dive in 2007 and 2008. Normandy and Five Mile bought the building for about $660 million and began efforts to find new tenants for the building. Bain Capital is moving to the Hancock from the office tower at nearby 111 Huntington Ave.

"We are currently investing significant capital resources to renew the building's environment and amenities, which along with our high-quality tenant base firmly establishes the John Hancock Tower as Boston's premier business address," said Jeffrey Gronning, managing principal at Normandy.

Since taking over operations at the building, Normandy has achieved a new environmental certification for the building and won approval to open an 8,000-square-foot cafe-style restaurant in the building.

Bain and Normandy were represented by Cushman & Wakefield in the transaction.

Link

So that means there's a big chunk of space now available at 111 Huntington, right?
 
They'd better not try to rename the tower (as Willis did with the Sears Tower in Chicago)
 
Hi Ron - I work for the branding company that helped re-position the John Hancock Tower for the new owners. As I understand it (but I don't speak for the building) there are ironclad legal agreements in place from when the building first sold to Beacon that it must be called "the John Hancock Tower" and nothing else.

So there are no worries of it becoming "Bain Tower" that I am aware of, but of course I don't speak for anybody at the building. Unfortunately, it also means that they can't name it after one of Bain's owned-subsidiaries and give us "the Dunkin Donuts Tower"...

The Hancock is building a two-story cafe, adding underground parking, rebuilding its lobby and common areas, and recently gained LEED GOLD status - one of just a small handful of office buildings in Boston to achieve GOLD. For those of you who know, the Hancock used to be plagued by HVAC issues. To achieve LEED Gold, all of that had to be taken care of.

We always told them that we can't market them as "the height of business" unless they could actually BE the height of business, so I think we're well on our way.

It's a big day - I think we're all going to be happy to look at the skyline during the evening and not see a black chunk around the middle of the Hancock!
 
That being said, we're the group responsible for renaming lots of places throughout Boston and I wouldn't think twice about renaming the Hancock under certain circumstances (not today's circumstances, the name fits it just fine)... but sometimes it's very important to rename (as we recommended for the Newbry) and sometimes it's better to recommend continuing using the existing name (as we recommend for Fan Pier) and sometimes it's best to revert to an even older name (as we recommended for The West End) and sometimes it's best to really confuse people and rename the Methuen Mall "The Loop" - it all depends on the property, the existing perceptions and where you want to move future perceptions.
 
Don't know if you are being serious, but there was an observation deck in the Hancock. It was closed after 9/11 for "security reasons" and hasn't reopened yet (despite all the observation decks in NYC reopening).
 
Aw... you're not trying to get me into trouble with my client are you?

Three owners ago, the observation deck was closed. Leases signed by previous landlords are not breakable. Those upper floors are full of smaller companies with trophy office space - I doubt they would be happily or easily bought out by anybody, ever.

Of course, in no way shape or form do I speak for this building or its owners, I'm just the lowly ad guy.
 
I'm hopeful that after Bain & Co co-founder Mr Romney wins the next two races for the White House that enough people are convinced he's a hero, if not out-right god, and we can rename the Hancock after him. After all, John Hancock was never president but Mitt Romney will be!
 
I mean no disrespect to the John Hancock owners (or their marketing firm) but one thing they can do to instill goodwill is to stop allowing limousines to park on Clarendon Street.

After 9-11, the building's (past?) owners filled in the parking space area on Clarendon and had the city remove the parking meters on that side of the street. All well and good since it meant traffic could flow more-easily.

But then they started to let limos idle there, meaning the street loses a lane of traffic.

Oh, and of course, it also defeats the reasoning for the removal of the parking spaces in the first place, increased security.
 
Mike02125 said:
That being said, we're the group responsible for renaming lots of places throughout Boston and I wouldn't think twice about renaming the Hancock under certain circumstances (not today's circumstances, the name fits it just fine)... but sometimes it's very important to rename (as we recommended for the Newbry) and sometimes it's better to recommend continuing using the existing name (as we recommend for Fan Pier) and sometimes it's best to revert to an even older name (as we recommended for The West End) and sometimes it's best to really confuse people and rename the Methuen Mall "The Loop" - it all depends on the property, the existing perceptions and where you want to move future perceptions.
Click to expand...

Did you, by any chance, have anything to do with renaming Russia Wharf to Atlantic Wharf?
 
I'm not fond of 'Newbry', which looks like a typo every time I see it.

What was wrong with 'New England Life Building' ?
 
^^And of course calling the current current collection of buildings on the other side of Government Center "The West End" is an insult to the memories of the people who used to call the real West End neighborhood their home, but hey, it looks good in the real estate ads so...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top