Two Financial Center

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saw this today... it looks even with the building next to it, so topped off I suppose.
 
ps... I was suprised to see a great view of the state house from the 18th floor of the Fed building as well as many other great views. security is extra hard, but nice views all around... wonder about the the higher floors, and Im also curious about if the hole in the building counts as floors.......as usual, I forgot my not so great 3.5 pixel digi. sorry
 
^^It will be slightly higher then the surrounding buildings, around 2 to 3 floors so its very close to top-out.
 
I always feel a little sad when the crane comes down ...


Thanks for the updates!
 
Prior to the demolition of all the buildings that sat where One Financial Center is located, Essex Street was much narrower, probably to the center line of the current version. The demolished buildings were a little shorter than the Hotel Essex, or whatever they call it now. Two Financial Center restores some of the canyon feel that Essex had 40-50 years ago.
 
Making your rounds today, eh Toby? Thanks for all the updates.
 
Don't wanna rush to judgement, but that's what we do best around here... it looks as exciting as a warm glass of water. Still, it looks like the materials and detailing are above average.
 
Miller timing
Developer makes his mark with Two Financial project

Boston Business Journal - by Michelle Hillman
Friday, November 21, 2008

John Miller has just returned from a five-day trip to Florida spent helping his elderly parents look for a condo. His bronzed glow can?t hide the fact that he is fighting off a cold and is trying to muster the energy to give a presentation to one of his largest, and most meticulous, tenants.

Miller is senior vice president of Lincoln Property Co.?s Boston office *? and the developer behind Two Financial, a 220,000-square-foot office tower rising in downtown Boston. It?s one of the only office buildings under construction today, having locked up the funds (Miller?s partner is ASB Capital Management LLC) and a tenant (KPMG LLP) to move ahead.

Both have become nearly impossible to secure in an exceedingly difficult credit market and time of enormous layoffs.

?We beat the financing window by 30 days,? said Miller in a nod to the credit crunch that has squeezed projects across the city.

Those closest to the double eagle ? Miller graduated from Boston College High School and Boston College ? said he pursued Two Financial in classic ?Johnny? Miller style. He was focused, assembled the right team and didn?t let up, not even when his equity partner pushed him to consider other tenants aside from the national accounting firm KPMG.

After a year of negotiations, Miller inked a lease with the accounting firm for 115,000 square feet of space, enabling him to have slightly more than half the building leased before it opens next June.

?I hope it?s a home run. If we lease up the balance of the space it will be,? Miller said. ?I hope to be full 12 months after we open. I?d love to be fully leased within six to 12 months after we open. In this market I don?t know."

If the project?s uncertainty leading up to KPMG?s lease triggered any butterflies in his stomach, Miller didn?t show it, said James Darcy, managing director of ASB?s capital investment group.

?We were just concerned that we wouldn?t end up making a deal,? Darcy said.

Miller still needs to find tenants for 105,000 square feet of office space before the building is fully leased. KPMG has options that allow the firm to take another floor or 19,000 square feet by the end of this year. Landing an expanding company is key in a down market *? few tenants are making real estate decisions and even fewer are choosing to spend precious dollars to build showcase office space.

?I?m sure he?s feeling pressure but he doesn?t wear that on his sleeve, which I think is good,? Darcy said. ?He doesn?t show any desperation because we?re not desperate.?

The mid-rise tower has put Miller, and Lincoln Property, on the development map in a serious way. He may not have known it when he bought the fully-permitted site at the end of 2006, but his timing couldn?t have been better.

When he broke ground in June 2007 the market was strong and demand for office space was picking up. Miller had the lead and ran with it, getting his shovel into the ground first at a time when there was no new supply coming on the market. Miller was able to get his project started two months before the mortgage meltdown began in August. It wasn?t apparent at the time, but developers in need of construction loans would be shut out of the market forcing them to stall, or stop, projects entirely.

?That?s a huge feather in his cap in this climate that they were able to keep that deal together,? said Barry Hynes of the Boston real estate firm, DTZ FHO Partners.

Though Miller has been at Lincoln Property Co. for 21 years, the company did not get heavily invested in development in downtown Boston until after he took over the office in 1996. Lincoln did build 101 Arch St. under Miller?s predecessor, and former brother-in-law, John Hynes, who left Lincoln to start his own development business now called Gale International.

Miller liked the marriage between leasing and developing commercial space at Lincoln and left his job as a commercial broker at Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Inc., said Tom Collins, executive managing director and regional manager of the real estate firm.

Miller?s plan was to work under Hynes (the lead developer behind the now-stalled Filene?s project) and beef up his development chops, but the real estate market crashed and development ground to a halt from 1989 to 1994. Cushman & Wakefield tried to lure Miller back, but Lincoln sweetened the pot and Miller remained.

?He was a very effective broker and he wasn?t doing very much in the way of development,? said Collins. ?We were trying to build our downtown team and were trying to bring him back.?

He stayed with Lincoln and grew the six-person Boston office into a 100-person shop which has a deep brokerage and development bench.

It wasn?t always that way though.

Miller said Lincoln completely missed the last development cycle entirely, bidding and losing the chance to build 33 Arch St. in downtown Boston.

Miller came in a strong second place to Boston Properties Inc. for the mixed-use tower known as Russia Wharf ? one of the only other office projects with a signed lease that is underway in the city.

One of Lincoln?s other local development deals, 320 Summer St. in Boston?s Fort Point Channel neighborhood, was poised for redevelopment until other developers dropped their own nearby projects.

Progress also has been hampered by a lack of a residential market and support from residents.

Miller?s been through three downturns in Boston and he?s pretty sure he?ll get through this one.

?We want to successfully complete the construction of Two Financial,? he said.

Miller?s life isn?t all about real estate, though it runs in the family and many of his friends are in the business. Miller, who declined to discuss his personal life but has three children, enjoys horseback riding in Milton and kicking back during summer visits to Martha?s Vineyard.

On the weekends Miller can occasionally be found with Barry Hynes (John Hynes? brother) tailgating at Boston College football games.

Michelle Hillman can be reached at mhillman@bizjournals.com.

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