News

INDUSTRIAL OVERVIEW: RECORD RENT GROWTH, LOW SUPPLY Relentless demand continued for warehouse-and-distribution space across North America in 2022. The year ended with a surge in fourth-quarter absorption along with more double-digit annual rent growth. While growth has slowed from the fever pitch of 2021, there have been no signs of significant deterioration in the fundamentals driving demand for industrial space. Inflation-adjusted retail goods sales and truck tonnage are at high levels, and containerized imports at…

OFFICE MARKET OVERVIEW ERIC SOLEM, Managing Principal | President In 2022, the top ten biotechnology leases accounted for 80% of the square footage (2.5M of the ~3.1M SF) and landed in either Cambridge or Boston’s Seaport District, with the balance landing in Boston’s western suburbs which include Watertown, Waltham and Bedford, MA. With rationalization of space accommodating a hybrid workforce and a looming recession on the horizon, there is now ~10.5M SF of sublease space…

INDUSTRIAL MARKET OVERVIEW TY JANNEY, Managing Principal The greater Boston Industrial market held steady in the 4th quarter of 2022 at 4.2% overall vacancy and asking lease rates averaging $14.58/SF NNN. Headline leases were signed by 24M at 140,000 SF, Lasership, Inc. at 96,000 SF and Iron Mountain at 92,000 SF. Total annual absorption (for 355M SF in total inventory) was approximately 1.6M SF with minimal change in vacancy rate over the 12 month period….

INDUSTRIAL MARKET OVERVIEW TY JANNEY, Managing Principal For the first time since 2009, the Greater Boston quarterly industrial vacancy rate increased from 3.9% to 4.3%. Rising inflation and interest rates coupled with a pause in early-stage life science demand are contributing factors to this change. 5.5 million SF of absorption and 7.5 million SF of new construction also represent 10-year highs, although the delivery of 3.8 million SF at Osgood Landing in North Andover this…

RETAIL MARKET OVERVIEW ROBERT ELMER, Managing Principal Retail in Greater Boston continues its rebound, with pockets doing extremely well. The supply constrained environment has kept vacancy below 3% resulting in upward pressure on rents despite lingering uncertainty, especially in the urban core where office occupancy is still well below pre-pandemic levels. Nonetheless, Dicks Sporting Goods’ recent lease of ~120,000 SF in the Prudential Center’s former Lord & Taylor space is a good sign for downtown…

OFFICE MARKET OVERVIEW ERIC SOLEM, Managing Principal | President Signs of volatility continue with another 1 million SF of sublease coming on the market in Boston’s CBD pushing available sublease space over 3.7 million. Meanwhile, big block tenants such as McKinsey & Company preleased 78K SF new construction at 115 Federal; HarbourVest agreed to lease over 205K SF vacated by State Street at One Lincoln; Eaton Vance finalized 280K SF at One PO Square; AstraZeneca…

Lee & Associates Boston is pleased to announce that John Nasca has joined the firm as Executive Director and will lead the Capital Markets team. With over 10 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, John has executed on more than $2 billion of office, industrial, and life science transactions in Greater Boston.   “I’m thrilled to join the Lee & Associates Boston team and to have the opportunity to lead and grow…

Since 2013, the rise of e-commerce has caused such an enormous boom in industrial real estate that it has become the preferred asset class of many commercial real estate investors. At the heart of the e-commerce revolution has been Amazon. Even before the pandemic, the firm had around 192 million square feet of warehouse, data center, and distribution space across the U.S. and Canada. Since the pandemic, it has added over 220 million square feet…

Lee & Associates Boston, a commercial real estate brokerage firm and a member of the Lee & Associates® Group of Companies, is adding to its team with the addition of Evan Koogler as Director. In this role Koogler will focus on the office, industrial and life sciences sectors within the commercial real estate industry. Prior to joining Lee & Associates Boston, Koogler served as Vice President with NAI Glickman, Kovago & Jacobs located in Worcester, MA….

Q2 2022 Boston, MA OFFICE MARKET OVERVIEW ERIC SOLEM, Managing Principal | President   Despite the turmoil in the financial markets in Q2 2022, demand levels for the Boston office market stayed constant. A significant number of leases signed, with over 90%, in Class A buildings and a significant portion of that occurring in brand new construction. Thus, the “flight to quality” movement continued to drive demand as the hybrid workforce model remains in favor…