It doesn’t easily roll off the tongue of a native, but the “midtown Boston” designation is still in the mix as a marketing tool for the real estate industry.
A Google search reveals dozens of condos and luxury apartment listing pages using the midtown address. The MLS Property Information Network even has an official “midtown” designation for residential property listings in Boston, comprising an area directly east of the Common.
Hugh Geiger, CEO of First Boston Realty, said “midtown” comprises such addresses as 45 Province, Tremont on the Common and the Ritz-Carlton. The company’s web page defines “Midtown” as properties in the Financial District, Downtown Crossing and Government Center – specifically properties facing the Common. Apparently the view is as important as the address. Other agencies lump in the Theater District as well.
Rosemarie Sansone, president of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, said it’s just another in a long list of virtually interchangeable names for the neighborhood.
“People call this downtown Boston, Downtown Crossing, the Ladder District, the Financial District,” said Sansone. “Everything is changing and evolving.”
If anything, the Downtown Crossing name might be getting a boost from its signature property of the moment, the 60-story Millennium Tower now under construction. Developer Millennium Partners has embraced the Downtown Crossing address in marketing its 442 luxury condos, Sansone noted. Which suggests that the name of the neighborhood is less important than what’s going on there.
-STEVE ADAMS
