Banker & Tradesman, January 2, 2017

Page 1

PRE-ORDER TODAY AND SAVE

2016 ANNUAL PROPERTY TRANSFERS DIRECTORY Call 617.896.5388 or email datasolutions@thewarrengroup.com Est ab li s h e d 1 8 7 2

the

financial

www.bankerandtradesman.com

WEEK OF MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2017

services

and

real

estate

weekly

for

massachusetts

A Publication of The Warren Group EASE OF ACCESS

In Banking, A New Focus On Web Accessibility Demand Letters, Aging Baby Boomers Pushing The Issue

TROUBLE ON THE HORIZON

Boston’s Luxury Apartment Market

COULD UNRAVEL IN 2017 Lack Of Affordability Worrisome For City Residents

BY LAURA ALIX BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF

Y

ou wouldn’t dream of building a bank branch that was inaccessible to a person with a disability, but can you say the same about your website? A recent spate of demand letters may be the push the banking and real estate industries need to make sure that their websites and mobile applications are up to snuff where the Americans with Disabilities Act is concerned, and advocates for disabled people say it’s high time. The world was a very different place in 1990, when the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. We didn’t have virtually ubiquitous Internet access and we weren’t all walking around with tiny computers in our pockets. Web accessibility may not have been much of an issue then, but that’s been changing over the past decade or so. The Department of Justice has been crafting rules to outline precisely how the ADA applies to web accessibility, although those are not likely to come down until at least 2018. In the meantime, though, a number of law firms and advocacy groups have

BY SCOTT VAN VOORHIS BANKER & TRADESMAN COLUMNIST

T

he real estate market in Greater Boston may be on a record roll when it comes to home and condominium prices, but there’s trouble brewing on the horizon. And as we move into 2017, until now, simply irksome issues – the flood of new luxury apartments hitting the market, rising mortgage rates and, at the other end of the market, a dearth of single-family homes for sale – are poised to take on greater significance. In the case of the increasingly glutted luxury apartment market, we could very well start to see the bursting of a rental market bubble as developers and bankers alike start to pull back. By contrast, rising interest rates aren’t likely to trigger an imminent crash, but they could start to slow the market down in terms of new sales and price increases. As for the shortage of listings in the Boston

Continued on Page 10

VALUE-ADD OPPORTUNITIES

Room To Grow?

area, hopefully we will hit bottom in 2017, but there’s no guarantee either of any significant relief for stressed out buyers. Developers, or at least the most successful ones, are often extolled as bold risk takers, betting everything on a big new project that strikes gold. And to be sure, there are a few builders out there that fit that old stereotype. In Boston, the late, great Norman Leventhal, who gave us that urban gem, the Post Office Square Park, and John Hynes, the maestro behind the multibilliondollar Seaport Square development. Yet more than a few developers are cautious, follow-thepack trend followers, rather than trendsetters, looking for the next wave to ride and leaping only after others have gone first. (The problem with pioneers, one major developer on Boston’s waterfront once told me, is that they wind up full of arrows.) And in more than a few cases, this has led to a whole bunch of copycat projContinued on Page 3

Class B Offices, Suburban Multifamily Are Markets To Watch BY STEVE ADAMS BANKER & TRADESMAN

We could very well start to see the bursting of a rental market bubble as developers and bankers alike start to pull back.

M

ultifamily properties in the northern suburbs, class B office buildings in Boston and industrial conversions in the inner-ring communities could attract strong interest from investors in 2017, commercial real estate brokers and analysts predict. Nearly a decade since the market’s last trough, opportunities for value-oriented real estate investments would appear increasingly scarce. At the same time, Greater Boston’s continuing economic growth and demand for urban workspaces and housing will continue to benefit Boston and Cambridge leasing and investment sales in 2017, industry experts predict. “The fundamentals are strong across the board here in Boston, and we’ve certainly seen the most aggressive growth in the class B (office) market,” said Frank Petz, managContinued on Page 9

CONTENTS

In Person ������������������������������������������������������������������ 7

Banking & Lending ������������������������������������������������ 10

Points ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 4

Residential �������������������������������������������������������������� 8

Classified Sections ������������������������������������������������� 11

By The Numbers ������������������������������������������������������� 6

Commercial & Industrial ������������������������������������������ 9

Records Section ������������������������������������������������������ B1


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.