Turn to page B1 for Banker & Tradesman’s monthly coverage of all things commercial real estate.
THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND REAL ESTATE WEEKLY FOR MASSACHUSETTS BY THE NUMBERS
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County close-up: Hampshire Spotlight: Pelham
IN PERSON
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JPMorgan Chase started opening retail branches in the region about two years ago, but the bank has a long presence and more than 1,500 employees in the Boston area. One of those long-time employees is Daniel Curtin, head of J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New England, as the JPMorgan arm is branded.
WEEK OF MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2021
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BY THE NUMBERS
Suffolk is expanding its use of construction progresstracking photo technology – captured via 360-degree, helmet-mounted cameras – from San Francisco-based OpenSpace.
BUILD BETTER
5 Suffolk Technologies recently invested in five construction tech startups. See Steve Adams’ story on this page. Source: Suffolk
600 feet The height of HYM’s One Congress tower in Boston. See Jay Fitzgerald’s story on page B1. Source: HYM Investments
900 square feet The largest size of an ADU under a new state law. See Christopher Vaccaro’s column on page B3. Source: Massachusetts General Laws
2 days
115 Hudson Group is swapping hotel rooms for 115 residential units in its downtown tower. See Week on the Web on page 2. Source: BPDA
15 The One Congress tower will have a MERV rating of 15. See Jay Fitzgerald’s story on page B1. Source: HYM Investments
360 Suffolk is expanding its use of 360-degree, helmet mounted cameras on job sites. See Steve Adams’ story on this page. Source: Suffolk
4,400 A Texas developer is using an artificial beach to anchor a 4,400-home development. See Lew Sichelman’s column on page 4. Source: Crystal Lagoons
Unless otherwise noted, all data is sourced from The Warren Group’s Mortgage Market Share Module, Loan Originator Module, Statistics Module and/or proprietary database. For more information please visit www.thewarrengroup.com/business/ datasolutions.
WITH INVESTMENTS, Suffolk Builds Construction Accelerator Firm’s VC Arm Scouts the Startup Crowd for Solutions BY STEVE ADAMS BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF
W
hile robotics transforms the workings of factories and warehouses, construction projects unfold much as they have for decades, pointing to missed opportunities to save time and money. Through its Suffolk Technology arm, Boston-based construction giant Suffolk is on the lookout for promising startups de-
veloping products that can speed up commercial project schedules. At a recent “Shark Tank”-style competition, one of the standouts was Canvas, a San Francisco company that’s developed a robotic drywall finishing machine that has been piloted on dozens of projects in the Bay Area. The change is similar to replacing a shovel with an excavator, Canvas CEO Kevin Albert said. “It’s always a worker operating a machine,” Albert said. “But it makes the work faster and more productive.” Albert, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and former robotics
engineer at Boston Dynamics, says Canvas is looking to expand into other U.S. markets, promoting its ability to complete jobs 250 percent faster than a manual process.
Crash Course in Clearing Hurdles
A 2017 McKinsey Global Institute report spotlighted the construction industry’s 1 percent annual labor productivity growth over the previous two decades, compared to 3.6 percent in manufacturing. Seeing a need to drive innovation in the building industry, Suffolk Technologies has been scouting the tech industry landscape Continued on Page 7
COMMERCIAL INTERESTS
FINANCIAL ADVICE
Single-Family Market Warped by Rock-Bottom Inventory
New Survey of Millennial Consumers Offers Openings for Lenders
By Scott Van Voorhis | Banker & Tradesman Columnist
By Steve Adams | Banker & Tradesman Staff
Image courtesy of Canvas
A new drywall-finishing robot can cut most jobs down to two days. See Steve Adams’ story on this page. Source: Canvas
Drop in New Home Construction Would You Pay Your Bank to Does Housing Costs Few Favors Advise You on Big Purchases?
Commercial Real Estate PAGE 3
By Diane McLaughlin PAGE 9