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WEEK OF MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2017
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A Publication of The Warren Group DEBTOR NATION
Banks Lure Young Talent With Student Debt Assistance
POT PROBLEMS
COMMERCIAL INTERESTS
Decriminalizing Marijuana Could Complicate Condo Living
Paying Down Student Loan Debt Is Employee ‘Benefit Of The Future’
Legalization Expected To Have Less Impact On Single-Family Homes
BY BRAM BERKOWITZ BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF
BY JIM MORRISON BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF
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raditional financial institutions – large and small – have made it clear they are looking to attract and retain young talent as many of their older employees approach retirement. While there is still a lot of work to do on this front, some financial institutions appear to have found one work-perk that is a sure winner among Millennials: Helping them pay off their student loan debt. In addition to large financial institutions like PwC and AEW Capital Management, several community banks and credit unions in the commonwealth have begun to offer student loan assistance benefits to their employees to help chip away at the $1.4 trillion Americans owe in student debt. “We recognize that as older employees retire, we need to bring new employees into the pipeline,” said Dorothy Savarese, current chairwoman of the American Bankers Association board of directors and president of Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, which recently began offering the benefit. “We are working as an industry to help attract young people and show them how … banking can be a fulfilling and fruitful career.” The idea of student loan assistance as an employee benefit is still relatively new, with only 4 percent of members in the Society of Human Resource Management saying they are offering it this year. But it is quickly catching on, thanks in part to the Boston-based fintech company Gradifi, a new platform employers can use to make contributions to their employees’ student loans.
Success So Far The service, which is being used by 130 companies total, 15 of which are in Massachusetts and 10 of which are banks, was specifically endorsed by the ABA in February. “Student loan burden affects a significant portion of our nation’s workforce – particularly Millennials,” Rob Nichols, ABA’s president and CEO, said in a statement at the time. “Since so few employers currently offer such benefits, we see this as an opportunity for banks to uniquely position themselves to attract Continued on Page 3
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Prime Real Estate For Rent
Large Blocks Of Sublease Space Come Online
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BY SCOTT VAN VOORHIS BANKER & TRADESMAN COLUMNIST
t’s hard to imagine anyone actually cheering on layoffs and cost cutting at other firms in hopes of gaining a few additional floors of office space. But in Greater Boston’s super-tight office market, it may pay to be like a vulture when it comes to scouring the market for leads on soon-to-be-vacant blocks of office space. After all, another company’s woes or efforts to slim down fast can present real opportunities for fast-growing firms with big hiring plans that are starved for space in which to put all their new employees.
A recent uptick in sublease space is freeing up large blocks of space that, short of new construction, just wouldn’t be available otherwise. Among the options out there are a sizable chunk of a downtown Boston office tower, a good piece of a suburban office campus, and a large call center out on 495. The most high profile piece of sublease space to hit the market is at One Lincoln Street, State Street’s world headquarters, where the financial services giant is looking to offload several floors in its 34-story tower, or more than 158,000 square feet of space. The move comes after State Street’s Continued on Page 10
hen Gov. Charlie Baker signed the law decriminalizing marijuana on July 28, most voters were pleased since they’d already approved it at the ballot box. But for condo-dwellers who disapprove of marijuana, this law could be a buzzkill. Legalizing marijuana in the commonwealth while it is still a federal crime is creating a long list of controversies. Just last week Sen. Cory Booker introduced legislation to remedy that and decriminalize it on the federal level as well. Because the bill has no co-sponsors and faces stiff opposition from the Trump administration, the issue is unlikely to be resolved soon. That tension has far-reaching impacts, and will primarily impact residential real estate in condominiums, said Chris Malloy, founding member of Moriarty Troyer & Malloy LLC in Braintree. Associations that have already banned smoking in units and common areas should have no problems, but many older associations haven’t yet done that, and it is more difficult to do once the building is occupied. “Condominium associations can restrict what is otherwise legal activity just by a vote by the majority of the board,” Moriarty said. “Smoking is one example; keeping pets is another. The issue becomes if they vote to ban something after the building is occupied, is an existing unit owner bound by that new restriction? This issue hasn’t been settled yet.” If an existing building attempts to ban growing or smoking marijuana and gets enough owners to approve the ban, they may have to allow existing owners to still use or grow marijuana in their units as a litigation mitigation tactic, he said; when a unit sells, the new owners will be bound to the new rules. “It depends on the demographics of the building,” Moriarty said. “If the majority of owners wants to ban marijuana Continued on Page 8
CONTENTS
By The Numbers ������������������������������������������������������ 6
Commercial & Industrial ���������������������������������������� 10
Banking & Lending �������������������������������������������������� 3
In Person ������������������������������������������������������������������ 7
Classified Sections ������������������������������������������������� 12
Points ����������������������������������������������������������������������� 4
Residential ��������������������������������������������������������������� 8
Records Section ������������������������������������������������������ B1