Banker & Tradesman: Oct. 26, 2020

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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: Essex Spotlight: Georgetown

After 25 years working in investment banking, Jon Bernstein decided that he wanted to stop the travel taking him away from Boston for much of the year. After mentioning his decision to one of his clients, PNC Bank, Bernstein learned that the Pittsburgh-based bank was hiring for a planned expansion in Boston.

IN PERSON

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WEEK OF MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2020

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BY THE NUMBERS

55 seats A 55-seat food hall is a Charlestown development’s attempt to pandemicproof its retail space. See Steve Adams’ story on this page. Source: Berkeley Investments

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K I T C H E N S I N K S T R AT E G Y

GET IN ON

THE GROUND FLOOR

The number of apartments New England Development wants to add at a Charlestown retail property See Jay Fitzgerald’s story on page B1. Source: BPDA

1 million square feet The 1 million-square-foot former Sears building in Boston’s Fenway has been reinvented with imagination. See John Mitchell’s column on page B6. Source: Elkus Manfredi Architects

30,000 square feet

Tatte Cafe has begun production of its baked goods at a new commissary on Old Colony Avenue in South Boston as part of National Development’s strategy of bringing experiential retail to its Dorchester Avenue projects. A cafe will open in spring 2021.

National Development has turned to a 30,000-square-foot commercial kitchen to anchor a development in South Boston. Source: National Development

3 months

0 feet Some mall retailers insist on doors to the exterior, so customers can avoid enclosed areas to reach them. See Jay Fitzgerald’s story on page B1. Source: Newmark Knight Frank

9.8 percent The national mall vacancy rate in September. See Shawn Taylor’s column on page B4. Source: REIS

Landlords Rethink the Future of Retail Space BY STEVE ADAMS BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF

M

ost commercial land lords balked when Ciaran Nagle and Tara Novak pitched their vision for a combination commissary kitchen and micro food hall. “We traveled the length and breadth of Boston and beyond, and got close in a couple of locations,” said Nagle, co-owner

of the Foundation Kitchen commercial kitchen in Somerville. “But at the most senior level, we found developers got very frightened by the concept.” The exception was Young Park, CEO of Boston-based Berkeley Investments, who asked all of the hard questions about the business plan but decided it was the best fit for The Graphic, an adaptive reuse project that’s brought 171 loft-style apartments to Charlestown. Scheduled to open in early 2021, Foundation Kitchen’s second location will occupy over 6,000 square feet of the ground floor and basement in the Sullivan Square

complex. A 55-seat micro food hall will feature four food stalls from five vendors, including a breakfast and lunch cafe that transitions to beer-and-wine bar after 5 p.m. A grab-and-go section will offer contactless takeout items utilizing a mobile app, and space will be dedicated for cooking classes and community events. The lower level will host a shared kitchen and smaller dedicated cooking studios, rented to individual vendors. “There’s so many moving parts, people are unsure about how it’s going to work,” Novak said. Continued on Page 7

10 percent Adaptive reuse can save up to 10 percent of a project’s total construction cost. See Ben Wan’s column on page B4. Source: RODE Architects

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.

COMMERCIAL INTERESTS

BANKER BEWARE

New Report Offers Template to Fix Massachusetts’ Perennial Supply Shortage

Pandemic Drove Adoption of Digital Services, Increased Fraud Risks

By Scott Van Voorhis | Banker & Tradesman Columnist

By Diane McLaughlin | Banker & Tradesman Staff

Image courtesy of National Development

Remediation at a heavily contaminated Cambridge site took only three months. See Dan Spinogatti’s column on page B5. Source: EBI Consulting

Want to Solve the Housing Lenders Look to Remove Crisis? Upzone Everything Friction from Online Fraud Fight

Commercial Real Estate PAGE 3

Banking & Lending PAGE 9


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