Boston Round Up – From Curbed.com

Boston Real Estate This Summer A great post by Tom Acitelli from Curbed.com – What to watch for during the next few months. Including new development BY TOM ACITELLI With the unofficial start of summer post-Memorial Day, it’s time to look ahead a few months. What’s in store for the Boston area’s real estate […]

Boston Real Estate This Summer

A great post by Tom Acitelli from Curbed.com – What to watch for during the next few months.

Including new development

BY TOM ACITELLI

With the unofficial start of summer post-Memorial Day, it’s time to look ahead a few months.

What’s in store for the Boston area’s real estate and development?

Record prices

Record prices for the area’s houses and, in particular, condos should continue into the summer.

It’s unlikely the big-time deals for condos at the under-construction One Dalton in Back Bay will close during the next few months, but if they do, keep an eye out for a final tag totaling $40 million—which would be the region’s biggest home sale ever.

The records will happen at a neighborhood level, too. Case in point: The big asking prices at Fenway’s under-construction Pierce Boston.

Big deals

Speaking of big trades, deals for large tracts of develop-able (or redevelop-able) land could go through this summer.

Chief among these are a sale of the 19-acre Widett Circle site where South Boston meets the South End—unless state plans for a South Station expansion gum things up—and a sale of the eight-acre Harvard Square campus of the Episcopal Divinity School.

The latter will likely face complications due to an ownership arrangement with Cambridge’s Lesley University.

Big developments

Continuing our bigness theme, several titanic projects could and should come into sharper focus during the next few months.

These include what would be South Boston’s biggest development in living memory, a 2.1 million-square-foot reuse of the Edison power plant (rendered); a redevelopment of the 50-acre Necco candy-making hub in Revere; and the proposed spire in place of the city-owned Winthrop Square Garage, which concern over shadows has threatened to derail.

Hubway stations

The City of Boston will be holding feedback sessions with the public to help decide where dozens of new bike-share kiosks will go. Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville are also expected to add stations.

Tiniest hotel rooms

The scheduled June opening of the 11-story Yotel in the Seaport District will bring the Boston region its tiniest hotel rooms.

The bulk of the inn’s 326 rooms—or “cabins,” in the chain’s parlance—will run to just 149 square feet. Corner cabins will range from 200 to 225 square feet; and there will be a 1,000-square-foot VIP suite on the top floor.

Rents down

Sure, what the heck? There are reports of the market turning in favor of tenants. But not by much.