JANUARY 12 | MOHEGAN SUN SEE PAGE 16 FOR MORE INFO. Est ab li s h e d 1 8 7 2
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WEEK OF MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2017
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A Publication of The Warren Group PURCHASER PROTECTION
Company Offers To Insure Buyers’ Down Payments
The doomed skinny tower was first envisioned as a 31-story, 355-foot-tall building; after two shaves it was down to 13 stories and 155 feet. Depicted in this rendering is version two at 19 stories.
COMMERCIAL INTERESTS
CEO Says Overheating Markets Are His Sweet Spot BY JIM MORRISON BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF
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new product called “down payment insurance” came to market this year, meant to protect homebuyers the same way that private mortgage insurance protects lenders and the GSEs. Texas-based ValueInsured, the only company offering down payment insurance, launched in 2016 and began selling the product this year. “Take that same concept and protect the person who is taking the money out of the bank and putting it into the home and losing the protection it had while it was in the bank,” said Joe Melendez, CEO of ValueInsured. “Give borrowers the same protection the lenders have had for decades. Now both sides can be equally protected. That’s the fair way to buy a home. There hasn’t been in innovation in real estate like this in 40 years, since home warrantees were introduced.” The product is offered through partnerContinued on Page 8
HOMES AWAY FROM HOME
Corporate Housing Fills Up New Developments CEO Says Overheating Markets Are His Sweet Spot BY STEVE ADAMS BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF
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uilding more multifamily housing in Boston is the cornerstone of Mayor Marty Walsh’s strategy to bring apartment rents and condominium prices under control, and developers have been doing their part with more than 13,000 units completed since 2014. But in a high-profile segment of the market – luxury rentals – short-term corporate housing providers are snapping up many of the residences. Nearly 100 apartment buildings in Boston are advertising short-term rentals, according to research by the Fenway Community Development Corporation. Continued on Page 9
Skinny Towers Kneecapped By Millennium SWISS DEVELOPER MAKES $7.6M ON SALE TO EMERSON BY SCOTT VAN VOORHIS BANKER & TRADESMAN COLUMNIST
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he demise of Boston’s first “skinny tower” highlights anew an ironclad rule of development in the Hub: Unless you are well-connected power player about town, forget about trying to build anything. A loaded Swiss development family – whose patriarch’s private life has been tabloid fodder at times – has thrown in the towel on its vision of a pencil-thin tower overlooking Boston Common. Maurice Dabbah and his globetrotting real estate family have pocketed a check for $24 million from Emerson College for the old and unspectacular 5-story Tremont Street building the developer had hoped to bulldoze to make way for a Big Apple-style, super-thin luxury high-rise.
The deal ended up being sweet anyway for the Swiss investor; after all, he paid only $16.4 million for it. But while Dabbah may have made a 50 percent return, the truth is his plan to add a little color to the Boston skyline with its first skinny tower never had a fair chance of becoming reality. The question is not who was against the project but rather who wasn’t. In an epic Boston pig pile, everyone jumped on, from elderly affordable housing tenants next door to activists worked up over shadows on public parks. The city’s shadow police, the Friends of the Public Garden, led the charge, arguing the tower would violate a state law regulating how much shade can be thrown onto the iconic Boston park. But it’s hard to imagine the ill-fated skinny tower would have blocked much sun. Continued on Page 3
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Banking & Lending ������������������������������������������������� 10
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Commercial & Industrial ������������������������������������������ 9
Records Section ������������������������������������������������������ B1