NOMINATE A DESERVING COLLEAGUE TODAY! SEE PAGE 16 Est ab li s h e d 1 8 7 2
the
www.bankerandtradesman.com
W E E K O F M O N D A Y , M AY 1 , 2 0 1 7
financial
services
and
real
estate
weekly
for
massachusetts
A Publication of The Warren Group LEGAL LIABILITIES BLUE LINE SPECIAL
Growth Is Good, And Generally Legal Companies Can Be Huge, As Long As They Play By The Rules BY JIM MORRISON BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF
O
EASTIE CONDO MARKET
SET TO GROW For-Sale Units Could Set Records
BY STEVE ADAMS | BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF
A
succession of luxury apartment projects has turned the East Boston waterfront into a popular transit-oriented development cluster that’s a 2-minute subway ride to downtown. The next wave will test the market’s ability to command top dollar for condominiums, including developer Lendlease’s 492-unit Clippership Wharf, which will begin presales of 80 condos June 5 in advance of its projected fall 2018 opening. Asking prices for the Slip65 condos will range from approximately $650 to $1,000 per square foot, said Laura Gollinger, a vice president at The Collaborative Cos. in Boston, which is the exclusive sales agent.
“People are becoming neighborhood-agnostic,” Gollinger said. “It’s more about the product: the amenities, the views, the turnkey nature of new construction and the access to transit. Being able to get something just outside the urban core on a transit line is very attractive.” Recent price comparisons to Slip65 are scarce in a neighborhood where the bulk of condo activity has been conversions of older three- and six-family buildings. But the virtual sell-out of the 66-unit Seville luxury condo building which opened Aug. 1 in East Boston’s Eagle Hill offers some guidance. Units there averaged in the $600 per foot range with one resale for $735 per foot, said Dara Alperen-Cipollone, sales di-
wning multiple real estate offices in a single market clearly isn’t illegal, but how big can you get without running afoul of antitrust laws? Attorneys say it’s not the size of the company, but rather its behavior that can trigger regulatory scrutiny. Realogy is the largest franchisor of residential real estate brokerages in the world, according to the company’s 2016 annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It’s a $5.81 billion company that owns multiple real estate agency brands and offices, nearly half of PHH Mortgage, and several title, settlement and relocation services companies. At 13.5 percent of the national residential brokerage market, Realogy is big, but far from the only game in town, and even if it had 100 percent of a particular local market, it wouldn’t necessarily be illegal. It isn’t illegal for a company to have a significant market share – even a market share Continued on Page 8 COMMERCIAL INTERESTS
Beverley Finds Success With Apartment Construction Survey Finds New Apartments Don’t Come With Schoolchildren
P
BY SCOTT VAN VOORHIS BANKER & TRADESMAN COLUMNIST
CONTENTS
In Person ������������������������������������������������������������������ 7
Banking & Lending ������������������������������������������������ 10
Points ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 4
Residential �������������������������������������������������������������� 8
Classified Sections ������������������������������������������������� 12
op psychology quiz: What words come to mind when I say the phrase, “new apartment construction in the suburbs?” If your response is a) school children; b) overcrowded classrooms; or worse, c) Section 8 families, you may have a touch of NIMBY Derangement Syndrome, which is unfortunately quite common in Massachusetts, particularly in the Greater Boston area. The good news, though, it is a condition that is treatable with steady and
By The Numbers ������������������������������������������������������� 6
Commercial & Industrial ������������������������������������������ 9
Records Section ������������������������������������������������������ B1
Continued on Page 3
Continued on Page 9