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Articles in "The CRE Insider"
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Transformed, Boston Buzzes With Late Night Activity (posted 05/28/12)
An internationally acclaimed museum on its waterfront. Celebrity chefs with restaurants in different neighborhoods. People starting work downtown at 8 a.m., going to dinner at 8 or 9 p.m. and staying in town until 11 p.m. or midnight to catch a movie.
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Mitigating Noise In Mixed-Use Buildings (posted 05/28/12)
Most people readily acknowledge that cities are bustling, active and noisy places throughout the day. The allure for developers is to extend that vibrancy and activity into the night. Mixed-use developments help to accomplish this by combining retail, residential, and commercial uses in one exciting building or complex. But this dense, urban design poses several significant acoustical issues. How can a developer provide the excitement of street-level shops and restaurants while calming their noise and not impacting the late night office workers and high-end residences above them? How can architects design urban destinations that don’t disturb the neighbors upstairs?
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Defining Best Practices Together (posted 05/28/12)
Stephanie Wasser spent more than 30 years as a developer, specializing in multifamily housing and commercial real estate projects. Since late 2006, she has been executive director of the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) Boston Council.
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Putting History To Work In Boston’s Neighborhoods (posted 05/28/12)
As Boston’s economy gradually recovers, high-profile projects – apartment buildings, hotels and office buildings downtown, in the Back Bay and on the South Boston waterfront – are once again in the headlines. These projects signal Boston’s appeal as a vibrant place to live and work, and we are all the richer for it.
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New Trends And Overlapping Responsibilities Require New Work Environment (posted 05/28/12)
One of the top-selling business books, according to The New York Times best-seller list, is “Imagine,” by Jonah Lehrer, a book about how we think. It is about the “a-ha” moments in which a creative idea comes to mind seemingly from nowhere, and about the diligent effort, sometimes lasting years, that must follow that idea to either proof and effective implementation, or to another idea, or to a dead end. And if there was ever a business built upon ideas and their proof, it is the life science business.
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Stretch Code Changes Have Developers Seeing Red, Not Green (posted 05/28/12)
“Green building” is a term that can be broadly defined. For some, it may mean building a LEED Platinum building. For others, it could be installing water and energy saving measures. There is no question, however, that most developers are more conscious of green building practices. The question is how to encourage this movement? The industry believes the market should be allowed to lead the way when it comes to green building. Mandates imposed by the government requiring specific technologies or energy efficiency measures are not the most effective way to get there. They will only increase costs and slow development of all building types.
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Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae Tell Banks To Speed Up Short Sale Decisions (posted 05/28/12)
Well, someone in government has been listening to the chorus of complaints about lenders taking too long to make short sale decisions. In a rare move of federal government housing competence, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to impose new guidelines which should accelerate short sale decisions. The new rules require that short sale lenders make a decision on a short sale within 30 days of a complete application, and if more time is needed, they must give weekly status updates. The new requirements go into effect June 15, 2012.