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Your New Apartment: A Dorm Room
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THE PITCH
COMMERCIAL INTERESTS
HOW THE PHOENIX BOSS SAVED THE FENWAY
Brokerage Turns To Television For Exposure Why Going Old School Might Pay Off
Publisher Of Now-Defunct Alt Weekly Won Development Battle
BY COLLEEN M. SULLIVAN BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF WRITER
I
n an era when most brokers and agents have consultants banging down their door to try and teach them the latest and greatest way to optimize their site, drive traffic with Twitter and become everyone in the neighborhood’s friend on Facebook, one Waltham brokerage has opted for a different path. For the past seven years, the core of McGeough LaMacchia Realty’s ANTHONY LAMACCHIA marketing effort has been local TV ads. Anthony LaMacchia, co-broker/owner, says it works. “I’m cautious when I talk about it. I mean, I’m not over here counting money [all day]. But it definitely works. It brings in a lot of sellers and some buyers, and we have a good system for converting them,” he explained, with the maContinued on Page 7
Developers Bet Micro-Units Will Catch On In Boston BY JAMES CRONIN BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF WRITER
Y
ou might not have the kitchen space to cook your grandmother’s Bolognese sauce. There may not even be a full-sized refrigerator in the place. But hey, where else are you going to find an apartment for $1,500 a month in downtown Boston besides a new micro-unit, the extra small apartments being pushed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino? The mayor has challenged real estate developers looking to build new apartment towers in Boston to make those units smaller and less expensive than the majority of the rental offerings available in the city proper, allowing the young professionals working in downtown offices to live closer to where they work. Hundreds of tiny apartments are planned by developers in areas across the city, from the South End neighborhood to the Seaport District, where developers are counting on young renters to think outside the box of traditional units and embrace a concept of minimalism. That could require serious sacrifices on the part of a generation that often buys on credit. The micro-units being designed can be anywhere from 300 square feet to 500 square feet, not exactly the kind of space you need to host 20 of your closest friends for a housewarming or the Final Four games. Instead, projects will include shared common areas where friends and acquaintances can gather. But plenty of developers are taking that gamble. Trinity Financial, a Boston real estate developer, is planning to build 245 micro-units, 11 of which will be fully handicapped accessible, at 35 Northampton St., adjacent to Boston Continued on Page C1
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WEEK OF MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013
FACE OFF
Fee Cap Has Bankers, Retailers Miffed Durbin Amendment Creates Controversy BY SCOTT VAN VOORHIS BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF COLUMNIST
T
he Fenway is the hottest development zone in Boston and maybe even the Northeast right now, with new apartment towers jostling for a piece of the city’s skyline. And it’s a boom that rests in part on the shoulders of a rather unlikely figure, Stephen Mindich, the pony-tailed publisher of the sadly soonto-be-defunct Boston Phoenix. Longtime Red Sox boss John Harrington and his advisers were in the home stretch about this time 13 years ago in the spring of 2000, closing in on state and city approvals to flatten a big chunk of the Fenway to build a massive new baseball stadium. It was the ultimate Boston insiders’ deal, with political strategist John Sasso leading the lobbying, a former City Hall SCOTT VAN VOORHIS Continued on Page 3
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THE NEWSPAPER OF THE
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BY LAURA ALIX BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF WRITER
he Fed’s decision earlier this month to leave swipe fee caps untouched following a recent report on the subject has reignited a feud nearly as contentious as the one between the Hatfields and the McCoys, setting off a debate between the banking and retailing lobbies over which party stands to lose the most by the present fee cap. Bankers and retailers alike are disgruntled with the interchange fee caps set forth in the Durbin Amendment, presently at 21 cents plus five basis points, plus a one-cent fraud-prevention adjustment, when eligible. Retailers say the caps are too high and that if the interchange fees were lowered, they could pass those cost savings onto consumers. “It’s a disappointment, but not a surprise,” Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said of the Fed’s decision not to touch the interchange fee cap. Continued on Page 8