The following blog post was submitted by Anne Baker, Account Executive at Solomon McCown.

It’s all about perception versus reality.

That was the takeaway message from NAIOP’s Affordable Housing: Challenges and Initiatives panel on May 23.  The panel included Howard Cohen, Chief Executive Officer at Beacon Communities; Lawrence Curtis, President at WinnDevelopment; Tony Fracasso, Senior Vice President at MassDevelopment; Bart Mitchell, President & CEO at The Community Builders, Inc.; Jeanne Pinado, Chief Executive Officer at Madison Park Development Corporation; and was moderated by Solomon McCown CEO Helene Solomon.

The meeting was kicked off by Aaron Gornstein, the newly appointed undersecretary for the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).   Gornstein outlined his plans for DHCD, emphasizing that the agency is planning ahead for growth in the state.  Streamlining the permitting process, giving support to promising communities, marketing the opportunities available to developers and building needed infrastructure are all essential elements of Gornstein’s affordable housing plans.

But while some may only see affordable housing as a social issue, Gornstein was clear that the high cost of living in Massachusetts has serious long-term ramifications for whether businesses decide to locate here and that the construction of affordable housing creates needed jobs.

False perceptions were also a constant theme throughout the panel discussion. The public is not aware that family homelessness is a relatively recent problem and that it’s easily solved through the construction of affordable housing, Pinado said.  Mitchell and Fracasso both emphasized the creative financing options that are available to affordable housing developers who are looking for them.

Curtis argued passionately that while the construction of affordable housing is important, it alone can solve the housing gap in Massachusetts; we must work together for the preservation of existing low-income and affordable housing.  Cohen also noted that while many upscale communities fight affordable housing developments out of a fear for negative impacts on their school systems, there is little evidence to suggest that is reality. It’s all about overcoming how local communities often approach affordable housing and making the case that inclusion will benefit us all.

View video of Affordable Housing panelists.

We are just starting to see the beginning of a recovery for the real estate industry, but it is still a very fragile time.  This bill creates the necessary tools to ensure economic development projects can move forward. It builds on the comprehensive Economic Development Plan released by the Patrick Administration earlier this year.  It expands and strengthens I-cubed, preserves important state and local permitting decisions, and encourages the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield sites. We strongly support its passage before the close of the legislative session on July 31.

The bill includes many NAIOP-supported concepts including:

• Creates a new Local Infrastructure Development Program that gives municipalities a new tool for leveraging private funding to finance infrastructure improvements needed to support economic development projects. The program allows infrastructure projects to move forward without the use of public funding.
• Expands the successful I-cubed (Infrastructure Investment Incentive) program and increases the number of projects per community from two to four. It also increases the available funding for the program.
• Extends the Brownfield Tax Credit from 2013 to 2015, encouraging the redevelopment of brownfield sites by bringing more certainty and predictability to the process.
• Streamlines District Improvement Financing (DIF) by eliminating the required EACC review of DIF districts and development plans, making the program more accessible to cities and towns.

The full text of the bill and a section-by-section summary of the bill are now available.

Paul McMorrow wrote a column in The Boston Globe on April 24^th that lays out the problem.  Massachusetts has not been able to keep up with the current housing demand.  This results in slower job creation and volatile housing prices.  As Paul points out, without sufficient supply, the recovery is going to result, once again, in an explosion in housing prices.  According to a report by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts, if the current pace of development is maintained, there will be a deficiency in our housing stock of 46,000 units.  We are already seeing this problem with an inadequate rental stock, driving rents to record highs.

The problem is rooted in several areas that include “home rule,” large lot requirements, lengthy permitting, frequent appeals, and an anti-children attitude.

• The economic needs of the Commonwealth have been stymied by local regulations that continue to encourage large, expensive homes and discourage the production of more affordable “starter” housing.
• With minimum lot requirements in many towns of 1-2 acres, it is very difficult to economically justify building smaller scaled homes.  (Few of these municipalities even offer cluster zoning.)
• Permitting requirements have become more onerous with local rules and special by-laws making the development process longer and more unpredictable.
• Even with local approvals, there are the frequent appeals that delay the start of a project by 1-2 years (sometimes effectively killing the project.)
• Lastly, many housing proposals that would attract families with school age kids are denied at the local level.  The often heard justification is that adding any number of children to the system will break the back of the school budget.  Oddly, this argument occurs in communities that project future reductions in the school age population.  Frequently, it seems that communities would be more welcoming to an asphalt batching plant than to new children.

As Paul McMorrow so eloquently states, “The state’s technology sectors demand steady supplies of young talent. But over the last decade, while the Massachusetts population was growing at a meager 3-percent clip, it lost 9 percent of its 25- to 34-year-olds. These are the recent college graduates and young families that the state’s economic future is built on. They’re also the population that’s most sensitive to the state’s deeply ingrained affordability crisis. And they’re voting with their feet.”

Our future is our young families and our children.  It’s time we stop viewing children as the equivalent of toxic waste and start building the housing we need.  Otherwise, we will only have ourselves to blame for a failed economy.

The following blog post was submitted by Duncan Gratton, Senior Managing Director, Principal at Cassidy Turley FHO.

This year marks the 10^th Anniversary of NAIOP’s Bus Tour, and as the Vice President of the Bus Tour Committee, I had a hand in planning and designing it. The 2012 Bus Tour, What’s Big and Breaking in Greater Boston, is a fast-paced live market update on some of the most dynamic markets in the area, including Boston’s Seaport, Fenway, Longwood and Cambridge.

The actual date of the Bus Tour is May 2, but this week – along with Bus Tour Captains and NAIOP staff – I went on a dry run of the route. We saw a lot of projects breaking ground and learned several interesting facts from the knowledgeable Bus Tour Captains! Here are the ten I found most interesting:

1. The largest private construction project in the US is located at Fan Pier. The Vertex buildings are 1,100,000 SF and $900,000,000!
2. Three of the largest academic/medical clusters in the US are located in Boston. They are:MGH/Partners

   Longwood Medical/Harvard

   Boston Medical Center/Boston University

3. Kendall Square in Cambridge was supposed to be the original site of NASA. After JFK was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson became President and being from Texas, he chose Houston as the new location.
4. Boston University is one of the largest landlords in Back Bay/Fenway. They control over 1,000,000 SF of commercial and non-academic real estate.
5. There are three new life science buildings under construction in Kendall Square (Pfizer, Novartis and Broad Institute) and two new office buildings (Biogen Idec). All are 100% leased.
6. Rents in Kendall Square and the Seaport District have jumped over 10% in the last 12 months.
7. New apartment construction is booming – at least six new projects are underway or about to start in Boston!
8. New Balance has announced plans for four new buildings at Brighton Landing, including a new 250,000 SF world headquarters building. In addition, they are planning a 345,000 SF sports facility that will include a hockey rink and track.
9. Harvard is constructing an ‘Innovation Lab’ in the former WGBH buildings on Western Avenue in Allston.
10. Boston University has announced that construction will commence this summer on a new lacrosse stadium on Babcock Street, thanks in part to a $3,000,000 donation from New Balance.

I hope you will join us on May 2 to learn more about What’s Big and Breaking in Greater Boston. Get a sneak peek of what’s in store.

While this latest announcement is exciting for the region, credit is due to CC&F for amassing such a large tract of land with direct access to Route 128 and a major transit station and permitting a 4 million square foot, mixed-use, transit-oriented, energy efficient master plan.  With an improving economy, the time is right for this landmark project to move forward.

So, what has changed beside the name?

• The project will remain a mixed-use project comprised of retail, housing, office and hotel uses.  The market, however, has clearly changed and appears ready for multi-family rental housing and a retail center. It will remain to be seen how much of the development will be office and hotel and when that could happen.
• A supermarket is almost certain to occupy space here.  Again, this is not a change in plans, especially with Wegmans expected to be the designee for this location.  It will not be surprising if other local grocery store chains continue to oppose such a proposal.
• The state will continue to invest in the highway infrastructure improvements in and around the University Avenue/Route 128 intersection.
• The project will be a multi-modal transit oriented development, taking advantage of the Amtrak/MBTA Commuter Rail station and Interstate Route 95 and State Route 128.  Before Westwood Station’s plans, the density of development at this location was one of the lowest of any intersection along Route 128, underutilizing the excellent transit opportunities.
• Although, probably too early to have financing in place, the debt market is sure to be open to investments such as this.  Now is a very different economy from the late 2008 economic disaster that began with sub-prime home loans, led to debt swap defaults, and ended in the near collapse of the financial markets.

With the development team set, a strong financing market in place, a growing demand for retail and residential space, and a prime location for corporate build-to-suit office sites, University Station should be the first mega-project to break ground within the next 12 months. Congratulations and best of luck to all involved!

On Wednesday, April 4, industry experts gathered at Boston’s Seaport Hotel to discuss the future of Boston’s apartment market at NAIOP’s Future of Multifamily breakfast program. The panel featured experts in the industry including, Raymond Torto, Chief Global Economist at CBRE; Kent Larson, Principal Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab; Julie Smith, President of The Bozzuto Group; Simon Butler, Executive Vice President at CBRE New England; and James Gray, Principal at ADD Inc,  as moderator. View panelist video.

Torto kicked off the panel and set the table for the discussion by explaining that from 2007 to 2012, there was an influx of graduating students in Boston. That, compounded with the fact that more individuals chose renting over homeownership skyrocketed Boston to the 7^th largest multifamily market in the country—and counting.

Butler expanded on the supply side of the multifamily trend. According to Butler, Greater Boston’s supply of multifamily housing will continue to increase over the next three years.  Currently, there are only a handful of residential construction projects underway in Boston and Cambridge metro areas. However, by 2014 these projects will be completed and almost double that number will be in the pipeline.

Smith addressed the demographic of individuals influencing the multifamily boom. Similar to Baltimore, New York and DC, Boston’s market is made up of single people, divorcees, and those in the 25-40 age group moving into the urban area and opting to rent over buying. Additionally, there is a demographic of individuals between the ages of 50 and 60—frequently empty-nesters—who are moving into luxury apartments. While varying in age, these demographics both expect hotel-like lobbies, energy-efficient appliances, common spaces and fitness centers all within a 30-minute commute to work.

Larson rounded out the panel by wowing the audience with his answer to the growing demand for personalized, high-quality and affordable units. Through the use of robotic walls, smaller apartments can now have multiple functions turning a full dining room into a bedroom with a touch of a button. MIT is providing the technology for these transformable environments that meet the popular need for spaces that can serve as the home and the workplace.

The factors that sustain the multifamily boom are just as interesting as the factors that led to this real estate trend. Rooted in job growth and urbanization, and perpetuated by the growing number of individuals opting to rent over homeownership, the emerging multifamily trend requires architects, developers and marketers to develop new strategies for building and filling these units.

This announcement may be surprising to some since Massachusetts, rightly or not, has not always had a business friendly reputation. With this new sweeping policy, the Governor has taken a hands-on, direct approach to ensure that there will be real results with immediate impacts.

In addition to the regulatory review, any newly proposed regulation must go through an extensive vetting process, lasting over nine months, that starts with a “small business impact statement” consisting of 25 questions delving into the potential financial and time costs.  Small businesses are defined as those with up to 500 employees (85% of the companies in the state.) All draft regulations will go to the Executive Office of Administration and Finance, and to the new Regulatory Ombudsman for fiscal and business impact review .  They will then go to the Governor’s office, where a case must be made that the agency’s recommendations outweigh the impacts and burdens on business and the public.  Only then will these regulations go on to the Secretary of State’s office for posting and public comment.

April Anderson Lamoureux, Assistant Secretary for Economic Development, was just appointed as the first Regulatory Ombudsman between the Administration and the business community.  She gave a detailed presentation on the regulatory reform initiative at the NAIOP Government Affairs program yesterday, along with Alicia McDevitt, Deputy Commissioner at MassDEP.

At the meeting, Assistant Secretary Lamoureux asked that businesses provide her with their suggestions on regulations that do not make sense, have extensive problems, do not add value, or where alternative solutions may better address the issue.  NAIOP has been appointed to a Business Advisory Committee that will help identify problematic regulations and alternative processes.

MassDEP, under the leadership of Commissioner Ken Kimmell and Deputy Commissioner Alicia McDevitt, has led the way on regulatory reform by establishing a target list of 21 different reforms within the Department.  McDevitt provided an update on the Final DEP Regulatory Reform Plan, which was released on Monday.  Although, the reason for this effort originated with a reduced budget affecting staff permitting and oversight, the effort has moved in the direction of creating general permits, self-certification, and third party reviews. Collectively, these reforms will make a substantial improvement on the cost and time for the regulated community, without diminishing environmental protection.

Kudos to the Governor and his Administration for boldly going where few states have gone! Massachusetts has clearly earned the status of “first in the nation” setting a policy to reform one of the most frustrating aspects of government for most businesses and citizens.  As always, others will follow.

What first struck me about the difficulty in getting this project through the permitting process in a reasonable amount of time was the lack of public support from the state, city, and neighborhoods.

One would expect loud cheering for a developer who presented a plan to knit back neighborhoods separated for decades and heal a visible, ugly, noisy, urban scar produced by an open sunken turnpike. However, after over 130 public meetings and several years, this project was sufficiently delayed until the development was no longer financially viable. Even with changing design requirements, increasing construction costs, and enormous engineering challenges, the developers still tried to make this project work, requesting state assistance with infrastructure and the affordable housing component. Finally, however, it was a national recession that sealed Columbus Center’s fate.

More recently, other proposed air rights projects have also fallen by the wayside. Four non-profit proposals to build over the Greenway land or exit ramps have failed to move forward. A prime culprit was underestimating the costs to construct over the expressway. And yet, the then-Mass Turnpike Authority continued to consider those and other similar sites as valuable assets worth millions of “up-front” dollars, rather than the liabilities they were to any developer considering construction.

It is challenging enough to commit to build a sizable development in Boston given the high construction costs associated with dense, urban projects.  Add to that the obligation to fund city infrastructure, make linkage payments for affordable housing, and the uncertainty of where the market will be after a lengthy permitting process, and you have a serious set of impediments to growth.

I agree with Matt’s recommendations:

•             MassDOT should look towards ground rents and/or sharing in the profits realized from a sale or refinancing, rather than pressing for larger acquisition costs.  Massport has successfully helped produce many major development projects in the Seaport area using this approach.

•             Building over air-rights is very complicated and costly. Government incentives and a predictable permitting process will be necessary to make the sites over the Turnpike and the Greenway ramps feasible.  The result will be increased tax revenues and a better city.

•             MassDOT should consider outsourcing the oversight for the development of air rights projects to MassDevelopment. It has a proven track record helping to guide development projects throughout the state.

Now is the time to start preparing for an upswing in development interest. If we do not fix these problems now, it could be many years before this highway blight is replaced with productive, well designed, urban mixed use projects.

NAIOP Massachusetts’ “Cambridge: Ready, Set, Go!” breakfast event on February 15 featured a well-versed panel of real estate executives who spoke on “What’s new and what’s next for this hot market.”  Mary Lentz, McCall & Almy, moderated the expert panel that included Tom Andrews, Alexandria Real Estate Equities; Michael Cantalupa, Boston Properties; Shawn Hurley, Skanska USA Commercial Development; Steven Marsh, MIT Investment Management Company; and Thomas O’Brien, The HYM Investment Group.

View photos and event presentation slides.

Marsh noted how the world is changing every day, and that the U.S. along with many other superpowers such as China and India, continues to look for new ways to compete. For example, the U.S. aggressively leads the way when it comes to innovation, and as Marsh discussed, Cambridge has long been the epicenter of innovation productivity.

Due to Vertex’s move to Boston’s Seaport district, many in the real estate industry worry that the Cambridge market no longer holds the same stature it once did. However, NAIOP’s expert panelists assured us that we are in a natural state in Cambridge, and as stated by Cantalupa, “If you can afford to be next to MIT, you will be.” The lab market is steady, and many developers like Skanska USA Commercial Development are currently taking time to re-evaluate outdated space to create real estate opportunities that will fit all types of tenant needs in the future.

Home to two of the finest institutions of higher education in the world, Harvard and MIT, the panelists argued that Cambridge has gained and will maintain a prominent reputation. Companies in the life-sciences, technology, bio-pharmacology, education and innovation sectors, along with many startups, have found their homes in Cambridge. Due to the competitive advantage that comes with a Cambridge address, real estate firms have experienced a tremendous amount of success leasing space in this market. As the panelists noted, there is still an active demand and we continue to see new development activity in this market today.

Marsh and Andrews also spoke about the importance of proximity for lab space to MIT and other academic buildings. It is crucial that all facilities continue to collaborate, creating an environment that fosters innovation. Hurley also noted how mixed-use space needs to continue to be developed; it is important that we connect lab to retail and public spaces.

O’Brien discussed the next generation workforce and the need to build corporate and residential spaces that attract young professionals. His firm is developing the NorthPoint neighborhood, a mixed-use campus with flexibility – one that allows people to live and work in the same place.

Cantalupa and Hurley spoke on how real estate developers need to build flexible buildings that can adjust to market demands. Hurley noted how Skanska’s plan behind 150 Second Street was to deliver a Class-A, highly flexible property with a sustainable design that had features all tenants could enjoy. The building was also designed to accommodate either one or multiple tenants.

As stated by Marsh (and I agree), “Cambridge is special – it goes well beyond real estate” – and it is here that we want to continue the innovation story.

Note from NAIOP: Learn more about the dynamic Cambridge market by attending our 10th Anniversary Bus Tour, Big & Breaking in Greater Boston. Cambridge, along with Fenway, Longwood, Boston’s Seaport and Allston will be featured during this fast-paced and informative live market update bus tour.

This blog post was submitted by Ben Breslau, Managing Director, Americas Research at Jones Lang LaSalle.

The third impact of technology on our markets is through the workplace. Here the confluence of demographics and improving technology is enabling and inspiring progressive companies to redesign how we think of space. Employees are clearly more mobile, as technology allows the flexibility to work from anywhere and on any device. But even within the space, tenants are harnessing more open, collaborative, flexible, efficient, and sustainable workplaces.

The driving force for tenants in the past was typically cost, but now in addition to driving efficiency the space itself is being looked at as a way to enable productivity as well as recruit top talent. These trends likely mean lower demand for commodity office space, and a redefinition of the characteristics driving space demand. Office space is not going away, but the target is moving.

One question that I always get is whether the tech boom is just the tech bubble 2.0. Is it sustainable? We recently did an analysis of technology P/E ratios as compared to the dot com bubble and found that valuations remain near the lows of the last 15 years. Today’s tech companies are cash rich and startups have been funded more conservatively. I won’t pretend to know what they all do, but many are making products that enhance and improve the lives of people and the productivity of businesses.

We think this tech wave is still in its early to mid stage with plenty of room to run.