Only days after announcing a plan to seek state approval to raise property tax rates on commercial property owners, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu filed a $4.6 billion budget plan for 2025 that would hike city spending by 8 percent, or $344 million.
The mayor’s proposal would allow the city to lessen increases in residential property tax bills by temporarily levying that increased tax on commercial real estate for up to five years.
The scale of Mayor Michelle Wu’s planned massive hike to tax rates on office, lab and retail buildings comes at a terrible time. And she seems to be ignoring an important alternative strategy.
A Boston developer will use $5.1 million in financing from Rockland Trust to convert a Financial District office building into 15 apartments.
Is Boston headed for a fiscal cliff or a fiscal hiccup thanks to falling office utilization? Two things are for sure: no one should take fears of a calamity lightly, and everyone should use this threat as an occasion to fix what’s long been broken.
Warning about the prospect of a “permanently diminished city,” think tank analysts said a sharp and steady drop in the value of office buildings could soon punch a hole in the city’s budget, endangering resources for schools, first responders and more.
Retail vacancies are dropping and the number of restaurants and new, diverse businesses are rising, but downtown property owners need lenders’ help to confront broader headwinds.
For the foreseeable future, occupiers will have the advantage. Companies considering relocation or lease renewal can leverage the highest amount of vacant office space ever recorded to their benefit in negotiations.
The Biden administration is launching a multi-agency effort to encourage states and cities to convert more empty office buildings into housing units, with billions of federal dollars available to help spur such transitions.
The Downtown Boston Business Improvement District has announced a three-year effort to “forge [a] new identity” for the neighborhood.
Proposed new downtown Boston zoning drew critiques as a developer-driven plan that allows excessive building heights and puts historical properties at risk.
The study recommendations offer “consistent and fair baseline and bonus heights” for new projects, the draft plan states, replacing a mishmash of more than 20 height limits.
Designs of an $87 million flood barrier protecting downtown Boston will proceed to the next step after receiving state funding for additional engineering studies.
It’s becoming clear that things are going to get worse in downtown Boston before they get better despite the city’s office-to-residential conversion pilot program. The scale of the problem is just too great.
More than three years after downtown Boston’s office workers went remote, there is no sign of a sea change that will entice them to leave their kitchen tables for their offices full-time. And it could stay that way if the city, state and industry don’t work together.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced the distribution of $2.8 million in grants to city small businesses Tuesday, with the aim of helping them expand downtown.
Not long ago, Boston’s traditional center of business and commerce appeared poised for a glorious new future as the city’s newest residential neighborhood. But even if the city chips in money for conversions, a big transformation could prove costly.
Boston is looking for a few good residents, business and civic leaders who are serious about making the city more fun.
Two of the region’s largest owners of office buildings and towers have a bone to pick with Kastle, the company which tracks office building occupancy, saying it’s reporting overly pessimistic data.
A major Boston office landlord is firmly slamming the lid on the idea that residential conversions of its assets in the city’s downtown are possible right now.
