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A Publication of The Warren Group COMMERCIAL INTERESTS

Nonprofit Institutions Could Be In Jeopardy Under New Tax Plan

NEW FACE OF AIRBNB

Rising demand for short-term rentals is filling former apartments in neighborhoods such as Boston’s Chinatown, where investors have acquired multifamily properties to cater to visiting businesspeople and tourists.

City Could Take A Serious Hit BY SCOTT VAN VOORHIS BANKER & TRADESMAN COLUMNIST

reater Boston today has one of the hottest development markets in the country, with practically a new skyscraper or research lab around every corner. For a city that four decades ago was on the verge of joining the Rust Belt and becoming a glorified Lowell by the sea, it’s quite a comeback story. But the Republican tax bill now winding its way through Congress would throw a wet blanket over a key driver of the Boston’s area success, affecting a bevy of powerful and elite nonprofit institutions. It’s popular to praise the tech and biotech industries for leading Boston to the economic Promised Land, and they have certainly played a key role. Yet the secret sauce behind the Hub’s success, including all those new towers and lab complexes Continued on Page 3 TRANSPORTATION PROVOCATION

MBTA’s New Fare Collection System Relies Less On Cash Rider Advocates Worry Cash-Only Customers Will Be Left Behind BY BRAM BERKOWITZ BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF

he MBTA’s plan to overhaul its fare collection system with a more – but not entirely – cashless system is intended to provide riders with a more efficient, accessible transit system that speeds up bus and train commutes. But as the MBTA prepares for the conversion, officials are faced with a vexing question: How to ensure that riders using only cash, who may not have a bank account, a credit card or a smartphone, do not get left behind? The MBTA on Nov. 20 awarded a $753 million contract to a joint venture led by Continued on Page 8

‘Mini-Hotels’ Quietly Transform Neighborhoods Investors Expand Reach Of Short-Term Rental Market BY STEVE ADAMS | BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF

oncerns about displacement, rising housing costs and an influx of transient residents are not out of the ordinary for Boston’s Chinatown, given the recent construction of luxury high-rises and boutique hotels. One of downtown’s last pockets of relative affordability, Chinatown is now feeling the effects of the largely unregulated short-term rental market. Airbnb and similar platforms are evolving, as investors acquire and rent out multiple units in apartment and condominium buildings at the higher rates that short-term rentals typically fetch. Karen Chen, executive director of the Boston-based Chinese Progressive Association, said more than 100 apartments in the neighborhood are typically listed on Airbnb and related

sites. The agency has provided relocation assistance to more than 25 families who were displaced after their buildings were sold, she said. “In a small neighborhood like Chinatown, when you turn a whole building into a short-term rentals, it’s really pushing out people who need the services in Chinatown for survival,” Chen said. Chen rattled off a list of rowhouses and apartment buildings in the neighborhood that have been acquired by investors in the past two years, then converted into short-term rentals typically quoting prices over $100 per night. That’s a discount for travelers compared to downtown Boston’s pricey hotels, but a sticking point for housing and neighborhood activists who say it’s time for the city and state

CONTENTS

Continued on Page 8

Commercial & Industrial �� 9

Points �� 4

In Person �� 7

Classified Sections �� 11

By The Numbers �� 6

Banking & Lending �� 8

Records Section �� B1

BANKER & TRADESMAN

Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO and Publisher David B. Lovins, President and COO

Banker & tradesman ESTABLISHED 1872

Published by The Warren Group

DECEMBER 4, 2017

THE WEEK ON THE WEB A ROUNDUP OF OUR MOST POPULAR WEB-ONLY STORIES FROM THE PAST WEEK

If you weren’t reading BankerandTradesman.com last week, here’s a sampling of what you missed:

EDITORIAL Editorial & Media Relations Director: Cassidy Murphy Editor: Malea Ritz

CFPB AND TRUMP BATTLE OVER ACTING DIRECTOR POSITION • Before leaving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray appointed Leandra English as deputy director, which under the Dodd-Frank Act could potentially catapult English to acting director until the Trump administration can appoint a permanent replacement.

Associate Editor: Mike Flaim NEWSPAPERS Associate Editor: Steve Adams Reporters: Jim Morrison, Bram Berkowitz Contributing Writer: Scott Van Voorhis

• At the same time, President Donald Trump named Mick Mulvaney, head of the Office of Management and Budget, to serve as acting director.

MARKETING & CREATIVE SERVICES

• English then sued Trump and Mulvaney on Sunday and asked the courts to put her in charge of the agency.

Director of Marketing & Creative Services: John Bottini Senior Brand Design Manager: Scott Ellison

• The complication is due to varying language in the Dodd-Frank and FVRA, which differ on who has the power to name an acting director.

Graphic Designers: Tom Agostino, Amanda Martocchio, Elizabeth Rennie

• The CFPB was created to combat predatory lending practices that helped spark the financial crisis, among a number of other reasons that involved protecting consumers and educating them further so they could make more informed financial decisions.

Communications Manager: Mike Breed

PUBLISHING GROUP SALES

• The agency has returned almost $12 billion to 30 million consumers in its six years of existence.

Director of Business Media: George Chateauneuf Publishing Group Sales Manager: Claire Merritt Advertising Coordinator: Sandy Liu

NORTH END APARTMENT BUILDING SOLD

NEWSPAPERS

• A seven-unit apartment property in Boston’s North End neighborhood has been sold to a developer.

Advertising Account Managers: Steve Ketler, Dan Benoit

• The building at 21 Sheafe St. sold for $2.53 million.

CUSTOM PUBLICATIONS Senior Advertising Account Manager: Mike Lydon Advertising Account Managers: Vanessa Robinson, Jon Patsavos, Megan Kurtz

• Evan Griffith, first vice president of investments, and Tony Pepdjonovic, senior associate in Marcus & Millichap’s Boston office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a private investor. They also procured the buyer.

EVENTS

• The buyer plans to fully upgrade the units to luxury rentals.

Events Manager: Emily Torres Events Coordinator: Brittany Bennett Events Specialist: Jason Beal Advertising & Events Intern: Kristina Dragicevic DATA PRODUCTS GROUP Director of Information Solutions Sales: Malee Nuesse Senior Data Solutions Account Manager: William Visconti Data Solutions Account Managers: Kevin Bartlett, Chris Mirakian Audience Solutions Specialists: Jenell James, Sarah Ahlgren INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Senior Applications Developer: Joe Chan Software Developers: Tatyana Lisyanaya, Michael Paul, Priyadarshini Velayudam INFORMATION SERVICES

• The building is comprised of six one-bedroom apartments and one studio.

NO LET-UP SEEN IN OFFICE AND LAB DEMAND • After recent high-profile office leases by Amazon, Rapid7 and Alexion Pharmaceuticals in recent months, numerous companies remain in the hunt for space in Boston and Cambridge. • The list includes existing tenants evaluating their options as lease expirations approach, companies in expansion mode and those looking to move closer to thriving industry clusters. • Cambridge’s heated tech cluster continues to lead the region in prices, with rents for office space 13 percent above all-time peaks and lab space fetching 25 percent above previous records. • Multiple tenants have put out requirements for over 100,000 square feet in Boston, led by Amazon’s potential 500,000- to 1-million-square-foot expansion in addition to its recent 150,000 lease at 253 Summer St. in Fort Point, said Ron Perry, a principal at Avison Young. • Back Bay-based online home goods retailer Wayfair and WeWork are looking for 400,000 square feet and 200,000 square feet in Boston respectively. Spotify, which entered the region with its 2014 acquisition of The Echo Nest in Somerville, is seeking 100,000 square feet. • Such large commitments could kick off construction of approved office towers looking for anchor tenants at South Station, Bulfinch Crossing and the Hub on Causeway at North Station.

Director of Operations & Product Strategy: Samantha Bullock Data Operations Supervisor: Tammy Dandurant Data Services Project Coordinator: John Keith Acquisitions Coordinator: Linda MacDonald

DEVELOPERS PICKED TO BUILD SECOND TOD IN QUINCY

Transactions Acquisition Coordinators: Wally Bullock, Ellen Gendron

• The MBTA has selected Hingham-based Atlantic Development and Bozzuto Development Co. to build 602 multifamily housing units along with office and retail space at the 6.3-acre Quincy Center MBTA station property.

FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

• The two companies are already partnering on a similar development at the North Quincy MBTA station, including 610 apartments and 50,000 square feet of commercial space, which was approved by Quincy officials in June.

Accounting Manager: Mark DiSerio Accounts Payable: Olga Khalaydovsky Human Resource Manager: Linnea Blair

B A N KER & T RA DES MAN

• The Quincy Center project would take place in three phases through 2031, including 300 residences and upgrades to the station and a new bus area completed by 2023.

(ISSN 0005-5409)

Volume 198, Number 49 Published each Monday. ©2017 The Warren Group Inc., 280 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210-1131. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Banker & Tradesman™ and The Warren Group™ are trademarks of The Warren Group Inc. Subscriptions to Banker & Tradesman:

• The MBTA in July put out the call for developers to submit proposals to build an air rights project above the Red Line and commuter rail tracks that cut through the downtown. • The project requires approval from Quincy officials and the MBTA. According to a request for proposals issued by Massachusetts Realty Group, the development could include air rights above the existing station, rail right-of-way between Dimock Street and 194 Burgin Parkway and the existing bus terminal.

Premium: One year – $379 Two year – $679 Single copies are $10.00 each and are on sale at the offices of the publisher. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: BanKer & TradeSman The Warren Group 280 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210-1131 Phone: 617-428-5100. Fax: 617-428-5119. www.bankerandtradesman.com Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA

HERE’S WHAT YOUR PEERS WERE INTERESTED IN LAST WEEK: • • • • •

Survey Finds Demand For Inner Harbor Ferry Routes Developers Picked To Build Second TOD In Quincy Skip The Elevator And Take A Walk Up The ‘Aka-Mile’ Avison Young Completes Three Leases In Downtown Boston Home Prices May Be Topping Out In Greater Boston

• • • • •

North End Apartment Building Sold CFPB To Sue Santander Bank Over Auto Loans Three Boston Firms Tapped To Help Devise Fintech Regulatory Framework SVN | Parsons Sell Hopkinton Building For $8.6M Enterprise Bank VP To Run For Congress

Story ideas? Submit your news online at www.thewarrengroupevents.com/submitnews

DECEMBER 4, 2017

BANKER & TRADESMAN

Tax Plan Could Slam Boston’s Development Boom Continued from Page 1 taking shape, can actually be found in its thriving nonprofit sector. Boston boasts an outsized share of the world’s top academic, research and health care institutions, not to mention a bevy of wealthy foundations pushing myriad imSCOTT VAN VOORHIS portant causes, from reforming the city’s public schools to raising money for Alzheimer’s research. This thriving nonprofit core has underwritten massive amounts of new development while also attracting some of the world’s top tech and biotech firms eager to roll out their own expansion plans. Just take Kendall Square. Today it is practically the world headquarters for the life sciences sector, a budding Silicon Valley East. All the brain power at MIT has obviously been a major draw. But MIT also helped lay the foundation for the spectacular rise of Kendall Square and East Cambridge, pumping hundreds of millions over the years into various campus and off-campus development projects. And MIT is now forging ahead with its biggest development plan yet, a $1.2 billion effort that will further transform Kendall Square with another million square feet of office and research space and hundreds of apartments, not to mention new retail and open space. Harvard is poised to play a similar role just across the Charles River in Allston, with plans for a $1 billion science complex – just the start of what will likely be decades of new development in the neighborhood. Boston’s high-powered hospitals in the city’s Longwood Medical area and beyond have spent billions over the years on major renovations and expansions. The building boom in Longwood – and all the new researchers and others going to work there now – has helped fuel a wave of new apartment construction in neighboring Fenway, including a ring of shiny new highrises around the ballpark. The MFA and the Gardner Musem have spent hundreds of millions more on their own expansions and renovations, while the ICA helped kick off development in Boston’s Seaport with its new, waterfront glass art palace.

Estate Tax Is The Real Killer As President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans hammer out a massive tax plan in Washington, they seem more than happy to throw colleges, hospital and other nonprofit institutions under the bus in the in-

terest of ginning up a massive corporate tax cut. A key element of the Trump/GOP proposal is doubling the standard deduction to more than $12,000 for an individual and more than $24,000 for a couple. That may sound attractive on the surface, yet it would dramatically reduce the number of taxpayers who itemize deductions – including charitable contributions – from nearly a third now to a measly 5 percent. The Senate plan would knock a point off the top tax rate, while the estate tax is being targeted for either elimination or a dramatic rollback. While lowering the top tax rate reduces incentives for the wealthy to give their money away – as opposed to letting Uncle Sam take it – the real killer is the estate tax. The estate tax has long been a big driver of charitable giving. Faced with seeing most of their fortunes scooped up by the federal government after the death of a patriarch or matriarch, the nation’s wealthiest families have long made huge gifts to colleges, hos-

With an estate tax repeal, many families may choose to pass the wealth down to the next generation instead of giving it away to worthy causes.

pitals, foundations and other nonprofits. But with an estate tax repeal, many families may choose to pass the wealth down to the next generation instead of giving it away to worthy causes. Last but not least, the Republican tax plan also calls for a tax on the largest university endowments in the country, which would leave less money for Harvard and MIT to invest in ambitious development plans. How much damage are we talking about? Nationwide, nonprofits and other charitable organizations could see a drop of more than $13 billion in giving, according to a study out of Indiana University. Locally, Boston area colleges, hospitals and cultural institutions could see a drop of more than half a billion dollars in contributions. That’s real money and it could do real damage to the health of the nonprofit ecosystem that has been the source of so much of Greater Boston’s success. ■ Email: sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com

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DECEMBER 4, 2017

Points LETTER TO THE EDITOR

In Defense Of Big Ideas

cott Van Voorhis’s recent comments [“Revisiting A Bad Idea,” Nov. 27] about the North-South Rail Link repeat, sadly, the typical Boston cliché about big ideas – they are risky, cost too much and we Bostonians prefer to live in a broken-down city rather than dream big, or heavens-to-Betsy, spend serious money. Like many of this kind of Boston commentator, Van Voorhis reverts to clichéd insults, i.e. claiming that Michael Dukakis has “drunk the Kool-Aid” and implying that Seth Moulton is crazy. Strangely, he also lauds our current connection between North and South stations, which requires two changes, something seasoned T riders can’t stand to do. In another cliché he brings up the “fiasco” of the Big Dig. I’m tired of these false claims being taken as wisdom. Instead, consider this: the Big Dig transformed our city, our waterfront, our traffic and our lives. It brought billions of dollars of development along its path and opened up the Seaport District. We got a gem of a park and an icon of a bridge. We don’t have to watch those cars spewing their filth into our faces. And it made the North End a part of the city again. It was plagued with cost over-runs, which probably wouldn’t have happened if Dukakis and Fred Salvucci had still been in charge. But it was worth every penny, and I think all of us who love this city would do it again, cost over-runs or not. In fact, every time Boston has dreamed big, the pay-off has been dramatic. Bostonians filled in the Back Bay, created the first subway in America, cleaned up the harbor, not to mention the part our forebears played in creating the Revolution. Without the North-South Rail Link, an employee from Framingham would not be able to get to work at Suffolk Downs, should Amazon decide to set up shop there, without making three changes at three stations. Like Van Voorhis’s praise for the current connection, people won’t do that. It takes too long. I’ll leave it to others to list all the benefits of the link. My point is to Bostonians in general: Boldness is necessary. Dream big. Don’t let fear-laden, small-idea complainers determine what we do to improve our city and our state. Karen Cord Taylor was the founder of and is currently a columnist for several Boston neighborhood weekly newspapers. ■ Editor’s note to readers: Have an opinion on Van Voorhis’ column? About the North-South Rail Link as a concept – or as it is currently envisioned? Do you think Boston should dream bigger than another subway tunnel – that there may be a different, more innovative way to connect North and South stations? Email us ateditorial@thewarrengroup.com to share your thoughts in this space.

Banker & Tradesman Cassidy Murphy

Editorial Director c m u r p h y @th e w a r r e n gr ou p . c om T i m o t h y M . W a r r e n J r . , P u bl i s h e r T i m o t h y M . W a r r e n , P u bl i s h e r 1 9 7 5 - 1 9 8 8 K e i t h F . W a r r e n , P u bl i s h e r 1 9 2 8 - 1 9 7 5 W i l l a r d C . W a r r e n , P u bl i s h e r 1 9 0 1 - 1 9 2 8

THE NATION’S HOUSING

Less-Stringent Standards Open Options For Homebuyers Lenders Ease Up On Some Key Requirements BY KENNETH R. HARNEY WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST

H KENNETH HARNEY

Standards are not necessarily as strict and exclusive as you may assume.

ere’s an important question for anyone hoping to buy a home next year but who isn’t quite confident about qualifying for a mortgage: Is it true that lenders have eased up on certain key requirements, making it simpler for first-time buyers and others who can’t pass all the strict tests to get approved? The good news answer is yes. A recent survey of banks and mortgage companies by giant investor Fannie Mae found that a record number of lenders report that they have relaxed at least some requirements for mortgage clients. In recent months, standards on debt-to-income ratios, minimum down payments and student loan debt have been made less stringent. Both Fannie Mae and fellow mega-investor Freddie Mac – who are key to the mortgage market because they set the guidelines and buy vast quantities of the mortgages originated by banks and mortgage companies – have taken steps to accommodate a wider swath of homebuyers. Debt-to-income changes are at the top of the list. Under previous rules, your total monthly debt load could not exceed 45 percent of your monthly household gross income. Under the new rules, your total monthly debt can now go to 50 percent. With Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, you can push it even higher – 55 percent or 56 percent – provided that other aspects of your application are strong. The net effect of the debt ratio policy change? “This is huge,” Paul Skeens, president of Colonial Mortgage Group in Waldorf, Maryland, told me last week. “It makes it much easier for a lot more people to qualify.” Often they’re younger buyers carrying the typical burdens of starting new households along with heavy student debt. They’re also families who’ve survived challenging economic times and are paying off lingering credit card balances and other bills. Fannie Mae’s recent change in the way it handles student loans for calculating debt ratios is another big deal. In cases where mortgage applicants are covered by income-based reduced-repayment plans, and their artificially low payment is listed on their credit reports, lenders now have the option of qualifying them on the basis of that reported amount. About 5 million Americans participate in reduced-repayment plans. Under previous rules,

lenders were forced to impute payment terms for borrowers using these plans. Even when credit reports indicated the borrowers were paying little or nothing, lenders computing debt ratios were required to factor in monthly payments equal to 1 percent of the outstanding balance on the student debt. Say the reduced repayment plan cut the required payment to $75 or to zero. Instead of adding 1 percent of the student loan balance to the applicants’ monthly debt calculation, lenders can now use the actual amount being paid under the plan – zero if the credit report says zero.

Keep Track Of Changes Down payment minimums also have been slashed, with many lenders now requiring just 3 percent down on conventional mortgages. FHA still requires 3.5 percent. A handful of lenders are offering 1 percent or zero-down conventional loan options, where they provide gifts –guaranteed non-repayable and no hike in interest rate or fees – for certain borrowers, typically those with solid credit histories. One large Midwestern bank made a splash last month with a zero-down mortgage plan that also includes a gift of up to $3,500 toward closing costs. What about credit scores? Any easing going on there? Not so much, but you have to look below the surface of the reported statistics to see what’s really happening. Though the average FICO credit score for home purchase loans at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in October remained near where it’s hovered for years – an elite 754 – the reality is different. According to Ellie Mae, a software and analytics company that tracks terms on new mortgages, nearly one-third of purchase loans closed at Fannie and Freddie in October carried FICOs below 700. Twenty percent had FICOs between 650 and 699. And a small but noteworthy few (0.64 percent) even had scores below 600. The takeaway: Be alert to the changes underway. Standards are not necessarily as strict and exclusive as you may assume. It all depends on what your application looks like in total. If you’ve got solid “compensating factors” – maybe a low debt ratio or higher than typical down payment or reserves – your sub-par credit score may not be the deal-killer to a home purchase you assumed it would be. ■ Ken Harney’s email address is kenharney@earthlink.net.

DECEMBER 4, 2017

BANKER & TRADESMAN

Opinion ULI PERSPECTIVES

2018 Real Estate Outlook: High Housing Costs Drive National Trends Greater Boston Is In A Long Cycle, Not A Boom

BY MICHELLE LANDERS SPECIAL TO BANKER & TRADESMAN

ach year, the Urban Land Institute and its members partner with advisers and researchers at PwC to provide an outlook on real estate investment and development trends. The “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” publication, first published in the late 1970s, is one of the most highly regarded forecast reports in the real estate industry. MICHELLE LANDERS As usual, there is much speculation about where Greater Boston finds itself in the real estate cycle. Most contributors to the report have a rosy outlook for the next 12 to 18 months, the key headline being “We are in a long cycle, not in boom/bust. The key to the next few years is to expand horizons, market by market, property type by property type.” Nationally, high housing costs, economic growth, worker output and the emergence of Generation Z are among the trends driving the market. In Greater Bos-

Greater Boston’s higher education infrastructure, young, talented workforce and growth in STEM industries helped the Hub remain strong overall. ton, retail transformation is also impacting land use trends. Compared to other major markets, Boston has fared extremely well in this year’s ranking of “U.S. Markets to Watch: Overall Real Estate Prospects,” joining Dallas/Fort Worth (No. 5) and Los Angeles (No. 7) as the only primary markets in the survey’s top 10. Boston was ranked 10th overall (9th for investment and 14th for development). Gateway and secondary markets rounded out the top 10: Seattle (No. 1), Austin (No. 2), Salt Lake City (No. 3), Raleigh/Durham (No. 4) Fort Lauderdale (No. 6), San Jose (No. 8) and Nashville (No. 9). Boston topped the “Local Outlook: Northeast Region” list, with its traditional drivers of life sciences and technology. Highly educated Millennials continue to fuel the growth in Boston as well as New York City, Pittsburgh and Jersey City. Boston also benefits from the availability of capital being near an

all-time high – Boston ranked No. 2 nationally on availability of debt and equity capital, behind Seattle. Greater Boston’s higher education infrastructure, young, talented workforce and growth in STEM industries helped the Hub remain strong overall. The housing sector had the second highest local outlook score – ranking No. 2 behind Westchester/Fairfield County. Boston does well in all categories: office (No.1), industrial and multifamily (both No. 2 behind Northern New Jersey), retail (No. 4) and hotel (tied for No. 2 behind Philadelphia). Boston received an overall score of 4.05 on a scale of 1 to 5 compared to the Northeast average of 3.49. The trends report analyzed 13 markets from Baltimore to Portland, Maine, and identified differences throughout the Northeast, particularly in secondary New England markets. Providence, for example, scored near the

bottom of the overall real estate prospects ranking, with authors noting the challenge of attracting qualified workers and need to improve infrastructure – a theme underscored throughout aging Northeast markets. But Rhode Island’s capital city was tied for first place with Northern New Jersey in housing investment prospects. Portland, Maine, was also highlighted as a market challenged to attract qualified workers, but scored near the top as a prospect for hotel investment. In general, Portland, Hartford and Providence were all ranked as average in a five-point scale ranging from weak to strong. The authors of “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” used an aviation analogy to describe the overall U.S. real estate market, noting the most critical times in a real estate cycle – and airplane travel – are takeoff and landing. They wrote, “This year’s discussions in [the report] focus on managing the descent safely, keeping in mind the lessons of past bumpy touchdowns.” Across the real estate industry, people are keeping their eyes on the ground, even as they look to soar to new heights. ■ Michelle Landers is executive director of ULI Boston/New England.

BEST DEFENSE

Ensuring Cybersecurity Through Public-Private Partnership Government And Businesses Collaborate To Protect Digital Citizens

BY AL ALPER SPECIAL TO BANKER & TRADESMAN

his past October marked the 14th year of National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), an initiative originated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance. NCSAM was created as a collaborative effort between government and industry to ensure all digital citizens have the resources needed to stay AL ALPER safer and more secure online while also protecting their personal information. While collaboration between government and the private sector is something that typically sparks a great deal of discussion and debate, the merits of this kind of cooperation against cyberthreats is something that is hard to argue against. Insurance agencies in particular (and other businesses that deal with safeguarding large amounts of personal data) can reap the benefits of this relationship and apply the resulting knowledge toward an overall improved cybersecurity posture. Of all the areas for government and business to collaborate on, cybersecurity may be one of the most important. On one side, the federal government has formidable resources relative to the broader cyberthreat landscape seen around the world; businesses simply don’t have access to that intel-

ligence or the tools used to gather and interpret it. That said, the government is not the organization best equipped to farm this data and use it to develop protective measures quickly and efficiently; the free market offers much better means of making sense of the data compiled and leveraging it to develop next generation tools. Given these circumstances, collaboration makes sense. Additionally, both sectors face the same types of threats from cybercriminals, albeit the philosophies behind the attacks might be different. While government is threatened by cyberattacks to infrastructure or government information, businesses are typically attacked to achieve financial gain. Either way, hackers are using the same tools and behaving similarly to carry out these assaults. This public-private partnership allows businesses to inform government what the cybercriminals behaviors look like on a broader scale, including its nuances and targets; government, with its smaller attack vector, might not otherwise be able to recognize these patterns and its dangers. The private sector, on the other hand, can then benefit from the big data government gathers to mine and develop next-gen tools to ward off these newly realized attacks.

Protection For Small Businesses Some of what has already been learned from this collaboration can and should be put into practice today, especially for smaller businesses like many insurance agencies. After all, in 2016 approximately half of the

Internet attacks worldwide targeted firms with less than 250 employees. Believing that “you’re too small to be a victim” is a foolhardy philosophy. Instead, insurance agencies and other small businesses should be implementing cybersecurity strategies that protect them against hackers. And contrary to what many business owners and executives might think is the biggest obstacle to good protection, many of these initiatives don’t cost a lot of money. In fact, simply putting policies and plans in place that promote a security-centric environment and following through on these with training and refreshers will go a long way toward potentially saving an agency money and time associated with recovering from a data hack. One of the most basic steps organizations can take is requiring longer, more complex passwords. Employees who use something like their last name for the password (e.g., Lawson) are securing their data (and their agency’s network) with a lock that a sophisticated hacker can instantly break. Writing it backwards and you’ve only delayed them by a few hundred milliseconds. By adding in symbols and numbers – e.g. N0$w@l4 – an employee has now created a password that would take a hacker seven minutes to figure out. However, a simple sentence turns out to be a password that is easy to remember and hard to break: something like “Our Last name is Lawson” would take a hacker three septillion years to figure out! That said, keeping the same password for months on end increases the chances

for hackers to decipher a password. Requiring a 45-day password rotation helps to eliminate this likelihood, and adding this policy to other plans that support a secure environment – like 10-minute screen savers, individual logins, backup and disaster recovery plans, acceptable use and other similar efforts – and these simple steps add up to a much more secure operating environment. Finally, continually emphasize an agency’s cybersecurity posture by training employees frequently. These efforts don’t have to be overwhelming – a quarterly review of policies, routine security announcements (that could be included in a staff meeting’s agenda, a message on a paystub or a popup when they log on in the morning), and perhaps incorporated as part of an employee’s annual review all add up to an environment where employees are always thinking about keeping their own data – and their agency’s data – safe. The intersection of public and private sector efforts toward increased awareness about staying cybersecure and recognizing cyberattacks can offer a number of benefits to all involved, especially as cybercriminals become more sophisticated in their attacks. Initiatives that lead toward thwarting the efforts of hackers are something that everyone can unite behind. ■ Al Alper is CEO and founder of Wilton, Connecticut-based Absolute Logic and CyberGuard360. He may be reach at al.alper@absolutelogic.com or (855) 255-1550.

BANKER & TRADESMAN

DECEMBER 4, 2017

By The Numbers

SPOTLIGHT: Hopkinton

a weekly compendium of data and arcana

YEAR SETTLED: 1715

STATISTICAL SNAPSHOT

COUNTY CLOSE-UP

YEAR INCORPORATED AS A TOWN:

MIDDLESEX

1715 TOTAL AREA: 28.2 square miles

MEDIAN SALES PRICE

Community

POPULATION: 14,925

Hopkinton has been the starting line of the Boston Marathon, which takes place every year on Patriot’s Day, since 1924 when it was moved from neighboring Ashland. DENSITY: 561 per square mile TAX RATES: Residential: $16.80 Commercial: $16.80

MEDIAN SALES PRICES TOTAL NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS:

600000 $500,000

5,128

480000 $400,000 $300,000 360000 $200,000 240000

Middlesex

$100,000 120000 00

“I’ve run the Boston Marathon six times before. I think the best aspects of the marathon are the beautiful changes of the scenery along the route and the warmth of the people’s support. I feel happier every time I enter this marathon.”

Jan.-Oct. 2017

Massachusetts

Acton Arlington Ashby Ashland Ayer Bedford Belmont Billerica Boxboro Burlington Cambridge Carlisle Chelmsford Concord Dracut Dunstable Everett Framingham Groton Holliston Hopkinton Hudson Lexington Lincoln Littleton Lowell Malden Marlborough Maynard Medford Melrose Natick Newton North Reading Pepperell Reading Sherborn Shirley Somerville Stoneham Stow Sudbury Tewksbury Townsend Tyngsboro Wakefield Waltham Watertown Wayland Westford Weston Wilmington Winchester Woburn Middlesex County

1,629.65 0.00

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17

❏ All sales thru October YTD ❏ Graph based on single-family home sales of $1,000 and above, excluding condominiums and foreclosure deeds ❏ Source: The Warren Group

SALES VOLUME 15000

Change from 2016

SALES VOLUME Jan.-Oct. Change from 2017 2016

$611,000 3.56% 234 18.18% $725,000 2.84% 262 -7.42% $259,900 18.14% 35 6.06% $427,500 4.91% 146 20.66% $322,500 7.50% 52 -28.77% $676,000 0.15% 126 -2.33% $1,050,000 12.30% 135 20.54% $420,000 9.09% 321 -14.63% $622,500 1.22% 50 -5.66% $525,250 9.15% 186 -12.68% $1,310,000 -0.38% 79 -4.82% $775,000 -2.67% 65 -20.73% $405,000 5.74% 335 3.72% $1,039,000 15.44% 165 -10.81% $326,450 8.82% 242 -20.66% $439,950 -3.31% 32 -3.03% $410,000 15.82% 110 -2.65% $415,500 7.50% 565 9.92% $471,250 10.88% 128 2.40% $430,000 5.13% 160 -14.44% $617,450 -2.46% 198 -1.49% $347,000 1.46% 155 2.65% $1,100,000 10.00% 321 -7.49% $1,090,000 1.40% 36 -29.41% $453,000 8.76% 87 -16.35% $270,000 6.72% 526 6.91% $440,000 17.33% 199 -2.93% $347,389 4.48% 290 4.32% $376,950 11.85% 112 -13.18% $582,500 15.35% 270 6.72% $611,000 12.11% 206 -13.45% $567,000 5.98% 303 -1.30% $1,150,000 4.64% 551 1.85% $560,000 5.66% 170 -2.86% $335,900 1.40% 125 5.93% $595,000 11.84% 232 12.08% $803,400 8.13% 52 -38.10% $347,500 10.49% 58 3.57% $719,000 15.04% 81 9.46% $524,950 9.94% 150 -6.83% $507,000 2.26% 70 -11.39% $719,000 4.28% 211 -8.66% $404,900 5.72% 253 -4.89% $274,900 9.98% 117 24.47% $395,000 6.04% 89 -14.42% $509,500 5.93% 206 -2.37% $575,000 10.58% 284 -20.89% $650,000 6.21% 85 -7.61% $732,450 12.25% 124 -24.39% $538,000 10.25% 233 8.37% $1,345,000 -4.20% 161 30.89% $465,000 10.85% 213 -4.91% $1,088,000 11.76% 226 10.78% $460,000 7.98% 278 -1.77% $515,000 7.29% 10,100 -2.53%

15,000

❏ Statistics based on single-family home sales of $1,000 and above, excluding condominiums and foreclosure deeds ❏ Source: The Warren Group

12000

12,000

9000

TOP 3 MORTGAGE LENDERS

6000

Rank

3000

Guaranteed Rate Inc.

5.93%

Leader Bank NA

4.10%

LoanDepot.Com LLC

3.94%

9,000

6,000

Lender

Percent of Market Share

— Haruki Murakami, author of 1Q84

3,000

0 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Rankings and Mortgage Market Share stats include purchase and refinance mortgages for single-family homes through October ❏ Market share percentage based on volume of mortgages ❏ Source: The Warren Group

❏ All sales thru October YTD ❏ Graph based on single-family home sales of $1,000 and above, excluding condominiums and foreclosure deeds ❏ Source: The Warren Group

TOP 10 EXISTING HOME SALES Rank

Street Address Community

Buyer Seller

Date Price

Rank

Street Address Community

Buyer Seller

Date Price

134 Chestnut Hill Rd. Newton

Thirsty Brook 2010 IRT Yorman Katz

9/6/17 $6,045,000

45 Young Rd. Weston

Sean Siegal Rasser RT

8/15/17 $3,600,000

56 Cart Path Rd. Weston

Xiaoqing Yuan Alireza E. Nowrouzi

9/7/17 $4,750,000

1437 Monument St. Concord

Katharine E. Moran Peter Honkanen

8/18/17 $3,575,000

33 Agassiz St. Cambridge

Yongliang Du 33 Agassiz Street RT

10/24/2017 $4,250,000

21 Sanderson Ln. Weston

Brian J. Lesser Jeffrey M. Clark

8/8/17 $3,500,000

77 Lake View Ave. Cambridge

Xiaolei Li Neil M. Kulick

9/29/17 $4,125,000

269 Prospect St. Belmont

Gilbert J. Roe Mark Thomas

8/31/17 $3,300,000

45 Autumn Rd. Weston

John W. Poduska Sr. Alejandro J. Chaoul

10/27/2017 $3,680,000

8 Bennett Rd. Wayland

Mark Kasdorf Michael A. Miles Jr.

8/22/17 $3,250,000

❏ Statistics from August-October 2017

❏ New Construction Excluded

❏ Source: The Warren Group

BANKER & TRADESMAN

DECEMBER 4, 2017

In Person

Building A National Presence With One Branch BY BRAM BERKOWITZ | BANKER & TRADESMAN STAFF

After more than 20 years at State Street Corp., David Granese was hired this past March to head institutional banking at Radius Bank, a 30-year-old enterprise that began as a community bank owned by the Carpenters Union, currently with $1.1 billion assets under management. But these days, Granese said Radius feels more like a fintech company with its “entrepreneurial atmosphere.” In 2016, four private equity firms acquired Radius and gave bank executives the green light on a campaign to pursue consumer deposits with its virtual banking platform nationally. Later in the year, Radius’s Small Business Administration lending team followed suit, setting up offices in Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado and Arizona. Granese has spent the better half of 2017 working on cultivating the bank’s institutional business, focusing on bringing in deposits from unions, municipalities, nonprofits and other large organizations. “I’m trying to create a brand recognition to increase and diversify our institutional client base as we partner with our consumer side to grow the bank,” Granese told Banker & Tradesman. “We have a whole new management team and are transitioning the company to something fresher, bigger and better.”

David Granese

Title: Executive Vice President of Institutional Banking, Radius Bank Age: 52 Experience: 29 years

on working with clients within Massachusetts and the New England region.

The institutional banking team that I lead has historically been centered around New England and the New York Metropolitan area. We’ve expanded to upstate New York, the mid-Atlantic region and most recently into the Midwest with plans to continue heading towards the West Coast. My business team establishes relationships with decision makers through face-to-face interactions. Growing incrementally and adjacently, opposed to hiring people in totally different parts of America, helps us build on regional name recognition and brand awareness.

How is Radius Bank’s national digital banking platform different from your typical community bank? We are constantly focused on providing a great user experience to our clients. That manifests itself in the products we offer, our customer service and the technology we provide to make banking with us easy. We don’t view ourselves as a “community bank” in the traditional geographical sense, but rather a bank that works with different “communities” or types of clients throughout the country. One of the main ways we serve clients nationwide is through our digital banking platform, since we do not have a physical branch presence anywhere but Boston. We focus on the banking experience with technology to make it easy to open accounts with our industry-leading digital account opening platform, and online and mobile banking allows consumer and business clients to easily pay bills, deposit checks, transfer funds and more.

Q: A:

of Massachusetts in 2018. We’ve done that through a combination of great relationship managers in those territories delivering personalized service and our online and mobile banking technology. This allows clients to easily bank with us without needing a physical branch. The same holds true for our virtual consumer business and other business lending teams that operate nationally. We’re able to provide a great banking experience without having a large physical presence in these markets.

Q: A:

Our goal is to be recognized as a national leader in consumer and institutional banking. Between our forwardthinking products and services, and our exceptional customer experience, we will get there. In the short-term, we’re following the same deliberate pace we set out to elevate our consumer business to a national level. Companies that balloon ten times their size in a year can be difficult to manage. Ideally, expansion is like the steady rings caused by a single, carefully skipped stone, rather than the quick splashes of a handful of rocks.

We have a seven-person sales team covering 18 states, and those 18 states represent more than half of all union workers in the country. And while we came up in the union space, our products are attractive to a variety of companies and organizations.

What markets is Radius currently in?

How have you been able to find success in markets outside Massachusetts?

Our consumer virtual banking business is national via our digital banking platform, with some of our largest markets being Massachusetts, California and New York. We also have teams focused on small business lending and equipment finance that work with small business and middle market clients across the country.

Our institutional salespeople are only on the ground where it makes sense. But if an opportunity – perhaps in California or Texas – comes up where jumping in is the right decision, we would certainly be open to that. If this past year is any indication of the advancements that lie ahead for Radius Bank, then I can confidently say we’re just getting started. ■

It hinges on the banking model we’ve built that focuses on the customer experience: providing great products, service and technology. The institutional banking team has welcomed a number of new pension fund and union organizational clients in the regions I mentioned earlier, and we look forward to further expanding our presence outside

Our business banking and commercial real estate teams focus

What is your goal for the future?

GRANESE’S FIVE FAVORITE PLACES TO FLY-FISH IN MASSACHUSETTS:

Any beaches on Martha’s Vineyard

Dowses Beach in Osterville

East Branch of the Westfield River

Hoosic River near North Adams

Any of the dozens of springfed kettle ponds on Cape Cod – they’re all good!

BANKER & TRADESMAN

DECEMBER 4, 2017

Banking & Lending Public Outreach Key To Cashless T’s Successful Implementation Continued from Page 1 California-based Cubic Corp., aiming to implement the new system in 2020. Among many changes, the new fare collection system will ditch the current CharlieCard system, allow riders to tap a credit card or smartphone to a fare reader on a bus or train to pay for a ride, and prohibit riders from paying with cash on board. Riders who solely use cash will be able to purchase a new type of CharlieCard at fare vending machines, which will be in stations throughout the system and on the street at key bus stops. Additionally, the MBTA plans to partner with retail stores from CVS to local bodegas to let riders add value to their cards. “It’s not just in transit; cashless systems are popping up in all sectors,” Stacy Thompson, executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance, told Banker & Tradesman. “It’s a global mega trend. We are riding this wave, and we need to bring everyone along for ride.” According to MBTA Spokesperson Joe Pesaturo, 7 percent of bus and Green Line passengers pay with cash onboard. System wide, 4 percent of passengers don’t have a debit or credit card or a smartphone; of just bus riders that number is 7.5 percent, said Pesaturo. As the MBTA looks to increase ridership, it may find more people without bank accounts or credit cards. According to a 2015 survey by the FDIC, 16 percent of Massachusetts households were underbanked, meaning people who use alternative financial services

such as payday loans and pawn shops, and 5.7 percent were unbanked, people with neither a checking nor savings account. In Boston, that number is even higher, with roughly 10 percent of households unbanked and roughly 20 percent of households underbanked, according to Mayor Martin Walsh’s Office of Financial Empowerment.

Not Fully Cashless, But Still Problematic Officials at the MBTA’s Fiscal & Management Control Board Meeting on Nov. 20 expressed confidence that the new fare collection system would provide equitable access for riders reliant on cash. “This is not a cashless system; this is a system in which cash is not used on board the vehicles anymore,” said Stephanie

Pollack, secretary and CEO of the state’s Department of Transportation. The new system will theoretically improve performance and limit its impact on the environment. The on-street fare vending machines will have a smaller footprint, and the retail network will be much more robust, said David Block-Schachter, chief technology officer at the MBTA. And the new system does provide some leniency to cash-only riders, according to Angela Johnson, a transportation justice organizer at Transportation for Massachusetts. If the new CharlieCard balance is lower than the amount of the ride, the rider will be allowed to board and the balance will dip into the negative. However, once the rider has a negative amount, they will not be allowed to board until they reload the card. “That is very helpful,” Johnson said. Still, Johnson is concerned about those cash-only riders living paycheck-to-paycheck, who may not be able to save enough money to put larger quantities on the new CharlieCard at one time. Then there’s the new card itself, which will cost $5 to purchase. The MBTA has said it will work to distribute free cards to low-income residents, but Rep. Russell Holmes, a Democrat from Mattapan, sees issues with this system because the cash-only option is more expensive. Those with credit cards or smartphones will not have to pay the $5 charge, he said, and if someone loses their credit card, they can most likely get a new one

Gossip REPORT

BOSTON

Email: bberkowitz@thewarrengroup.com

The property in this week’s fifth spot is located almost as far east into the Atlantic as you can go on Cape Ann, just across Gap Cove from Straitmouth Island. Purchased by the buyer’s agent who evidently likes unobstructed ocean views, privacy and isn’t particularly concerned about rising sea levels, “Stone Haven” was built by naval architect W.F. Gibbs. Some of the amenities include a chef’s kitchen, radiant heat, central air, elevator, electric shutters, security, slate roof and a four-car garage.

DARTMOUTH

ADDRESS: 1 Franklin St. #4902, Boston

ADDRESS: 150 Horseneck Road,

Dartmouth

PRICE: $6,500,000

for free, whereas a cash rider would have to purchase a new one. “Too many folks in our communities are still living on cash,” said Holmes. “I am going to be as loud as possible to say that this is not a burden the poor should have to absorb. … We cannot build a system that is bigger than the people we serve.” Transit advocates agree that the new fare collection system has the potential to be equitable for everyone, but that will depend on the effectiveness of the MBTA’s public outreach. Thompson and Johnson both said the MBTA should start piloting the new system as soon as possible, and work with cash-only riders such as those in the elderly and immigrant communities. The new system has the potential to benefit both banked and un-banked riders, but the devil is ultimately in the details, Jesse Mermell, president of the Alliance for Business Leadership, wrote in an email to Banker & Tradesman. She said the MBTA must keep the community in the loop throughout the entire process, be transparent and do everything possible to make the system “genuinely convenient” for cash-only riders. “As exciting as the prospect of an efficient and unified payment system is, it has to be rolled out in a way that doesn’t further perpetuate inequalities that already exist around access to transportation,” Mermell wrote. “Like I said, the devil is in the details!” ■

PRICE: $5,400,000

SIZE: 3,172 square feet

SIZE: 12,295 square feet on 9.85 acres

BUYER: Kaiyuan Wang

BUYER: 150 Horseneck LLC

SELLER: MP Franklin Residential

SELLER: Carl B. Lisa

SOLD: 11/7/17

AGENT: Terence Boyle, LandVest Inc. SOLD: 11/6/17

BOSTON

ADDRESS: 136-140 Shawmut Ave #7B, Boston PRICE: $3,535,000 SIZE: 2,654 square feet BUYER: Pollydoodle Properties SELLER: Brian Piccini and Alexander Sprague AGENT: Ricardo Rodriguez, Coldwell Banker SOLD: 9/28/17

NANTUCKET

ADDRESS: 8 Coffin Road, Nantucket PRICE: $3,950,000 SIZE: 4,879 square feet on 3.77 acres BUYER: Lisa Fazio and Greg M. Schwartz SELLER: Carrie A. Phillip and

Steven E. Phillip

SOLD: 11/6/17

ROCKPORT

ADDRESS: 11 Gap Head Road, Rockport PRICE: $3,400,000 SIZE: 4,492 square feet on 2.03 acres BUYER: Joseph A. Correia SELLER: Richard N. Grieco

3 Compiled by Jim Morrison, residential real estate reporter.

AGENT: Karen Bernier, Churchill Properties SOLD: 9/27/17

BANKER & TRADESMAN

DECEMBER 4, 2017

Commercial & Industrial Housing Advocates Push For Airbnb Registration, Taxes Continued from Page 1 to referee the industry. While cities across the country and as close as Cambridge and Somerville move to regulate short-term rentals, Boston has let the industry expand without new regulation. A June 2014 memo by Inspectional Services Commissioner William Christopher Jr. stated the city will not enforce potential zoning violations by short-term rentals as long as the unit is owner-occupied, while the city studies existing and future regulations. After a study of registration requirements in cities from Paris to New Orleans, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is expected to file legislation with the new city council in the first half of 2018, said Chris English, the administration’s policy analyst for special initiatives. Some cities require online platforms to report to them directly on such details as the number of days a unit is used as a short-term rental. “Registration is obviously a key factor in this,” English said. “Monitoring the use of residential units as short-term rentals can only be done if you’re able to count the number of days the units are used.”

Many Players In ‘A Complicated Sector’ A framework could emerge in early 2018. State legislators are expected to take up a bill by state Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, D-Boston, which would require registration and a three-tiered tax on short-term rentals.

While the city of Boston does not require short-term rentals to be registered, activists have compiled recent data from online listings indicating the category has grown dramatically.

The bill divides hosts into three categories based upon the number of units they own and length of stay, with a state excise tax ranging from 4 percent to 8 percent. Local communities would have an option to impose their own tax ranging from 5 percent to 10 percent. They also could limit hosts to only renting out their primary residences, and cap the number of days per year that a united can be rented. “It’s a good structure,” said Ford Cavallari, a North End resident and chairman of the Boston-based Alliance of Downtown Civic Organizations. “Some people complain that it’s complicated. This is a complicated sector and there are many different players here.” While the city of Boston does not require short-term rentals to be registered, activists have compiled recent data from online listings indicating category has grown dramatically. An August study by University of Massachusetts-Boston economics professors Keren Horn and Mark Merante found approximately 4,800 short-term rentals listed in Boston as of September. Earlier surveys

by Boston-based nonprofit Community Labor United found 3,459 listings in July 2016 and 2,048 in July 2015. The total number of available units appears to be rising, and so does the number of owners marketing multiple units in one or more buildings. The CLU survey found 47 percent of owners listing multiple properties in 2016. And a March 2017 study by brokerage CBRE concluded that hosts who own 10 or more units earned more than a third of all multi-unit Airbnb hosts’ revenues in the Boston metropolitan statistical area. The CBRE report pegged annual Airbnb revenues locally at $126 million and estimated the industry could generate up to $16 million in tax revenues, based upon a 14 percent combined local and state tax rate.

Growth Tied To Rent Increases For Julius Sokol, renting out a Chinatown three-family rowhouse to visiting businesspeople is a way to maintain a stream of income while preparing to renovate the building as apartments.

OWNER:

District Avenue, Burlington

National Development

The District Burlington

WHY IT’S HOT:

• Tenants have signed 10 office leases totaling 150,000 square feet this year at The District Burlington. • Charles River Development expanded by 23,000 square feet at Building 700 and BlackDuck Software added 23,000 square feet at Building 800, while BAE Systems added 3,500 square feet at Building 900. Companies relocating to The District included Decision Resources Group, scPhaemaceuticals, PayFactors, Prevalent, Aqua Security and Paques. TimePayment signed a lease renewal and expansion for 41,000 square feet. • Cushman & Wakefield represented ownership in all transactions. • Availabilities range from 2,000 square feet to a 180,000-square-foot build-tosuit opportunity. • A 170-room Residence Inn by Marriott opened in early November. Future retail and restaurant openings include style bar Mane & Mani, Black & Blue Steak and Crab restaurant and Asian sushi bar Feng Shui. The District’s 30,000 square feet of retail space is 100 percent leased. THEY SAID IT:

“The location and live, work, play environment that exists within The District Burlington is unprecedented and we look forward to continuing to make it a destination location. The District Burlington is where top talent wants to be.” — Leah Harsfield, vice president of asset management, National Development

THINK YOUR PROPERTY IS HOT? Drop Steve a line at sadams@thewarrengroup.com

Email: sadams@thewarrengroup.com

WHERE: WHAT:

Each week, Banker & Tradesman commercial real estate reporter Steve Adams spotlights a commercial real estate property in Massachusetts notable for its high deal activity, unique design or one-of-a-kind special features.

Sokol’s JB Capital acquired 29 Oak St. in June 2015 for $1.26 million and leased the building to an undisclosed corporate rental provider, which rents out the three units. The property is assessed at $657,500. “Rather than moving in families that I’d have to displace, we figured we’d rent it to a corporate guy,” Sokol said. He said no families were displaced by the acquisition, and supports the idea of registering and taxing such properties. “If they’re going to allow people to make money on short-term rentals, which there’s obviously a market for, why not?” he said. Echoing a debate over the growth of the corporate rental market in the Boston multifamily market, affordable housing advocates say the industry is driving up rents. The UMass-Boston study concluded that a high concentration of Airbnb units in a neighborhood is correlated with an average rent increase of 3.1 percent, or $93 a month. Neighborhood activists also say Airbnb’s tend to generate excessive noise, trash and potential security issues, while eroding neighborhood stability. “We’re losing the neighborhood feel in certain areas when you walk down a block in Chinatown and now it’s all people rolling up with suitcases after they got off an Uber from Logan,” Cavallari said. “It used to be families.” ■

BUILT:

1969-1984

BANKER & TRADESMAN

DECEMBER 4, 2017

Can we be your banker?

“Hi, is that your banker?”

It’s very likely—in fact, more than likely—that you already have a bank. So why would you even think about using Needham Bank? We’re smaller. We have fewer customers. We almost certainly have fewer branch offices. We have very little (zero, to be precise) Wall St. clout. Our headquarters—the big building where most of us work—isn’t in a major city or financial capital, it’s here in Needham, Massachusetts. And yet, we wouldn’t even ask to be your banker if we didn’t think there was the possibility of you saying: “Maybe you’ve got something there. A smaller, more personal bank might actually be a good thing.” That’s the entire premise upon which we base this advertisement and, for that matter, everything else we do.

How big or how good? The usual thing for a bank such as ours (or any more relationship-oriented business) is to trot out comparisons to other smaller, more person-to-person businesses: the artisanal cheese-maker, the bespoke clothier, the craft brewer. At some level those David v. Goliath comparisons ring true. Smaller definitely means less stodgy. More creative. A greater sense that you, your family and the values you hold dear...matter. But smaller in the world of banking can also set off alarm bells. What if I need a whopper loan? What if I’m in California and I need an ATM? Aren’t big banks safer? To answer the first concern, we have almost $2 billion in assets. Rather small by big bank standards, but very big by human standards.

To answer the second concern, we rely on technology. If you have a Needham Bank checking account, your Needham Bank debit card works at any bank, anywhere in the world, and you don’t pay a nickel for transaction fees. (Ironically, we may have more free ATMs than any bank, of any size, anywhere.) As for the concern you might have that big banks are safer...well, there’s evidence to suggest otherwise. Small bank operations tend to be simpler than those of larger banks. When it comes to financial institutions, simplicity generally means greater transparency. So there. You don’t have to be big to be good.

Two other very important questions: The first question is this one: Do you care to do business with a large bank? Some people do. There’s a kind of cocktail-party validation that comes from being able to say “I’m with Chase.” Or “My guy at Bank of America.” Small banks such as ours, on the other hand, throw off a vibe of provincialism. Saying you have an account with Needham Bank will either be seen as perfectly dull or incredibly shrewd. (We think typically higher interest rates on deposits and generally lower rates on loans, suggest the latter.) The real test—and the even more important question—is this one: Do they care to do business with you? Have they ever even asked to be your banker?

Can we be your banker? MEMBER FDIC |

EQUAL HOUSING LENDER | MEMBER SIF

BANKER & TRADESMAN

DECEMBER 4, 2017

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C O M M E R C I A L R E A L E S TAT E

BOSTON CITY GROUP AVAILABLE OFF-MARKET INVENTORY OFF-MARKET INVESTMENT PROPERTIES*: • 2 Office Buildings - Downtown Boston • 3 Multi-Family Buildings 5-10 Units -South End/North End - Boston • Industrial Leased Buildings - 15K SF+South Shore and Inside 128 • Retail Centers 40K SF+ Greater Boston

Property of the Week FOR SALE SOLD TOGETHER AS A PACKAGE - $2,495,000 Seller has asked that ALL offers to be presented on these properties and reviewed with a decision made by 12/15/2017 11 Unit Apartment Building 1329 Main St., Brockton, MA 5,040 Square Feet Profitable Multi-Family Property with 11 units. Building has been well maintained with long time owner as property manager. Apartments are bright and roomy. Not a lot of maintenance issues. Each apartment has it’s own electric heat and it’s own AC wall unit. Rents are below today’s market rate. Fully occupied with a waiting list of tenants. Excellent opportunity for investor to combine the income from this multi unit property with the professional use of 1351 Main St. The combined lot size for both properties is 1.42 acres which offers more than adequate parking. Pre-approved qualified Buyers only. 1351 Main St and 1329 Main St. are being sold together as a package.

OFF-MARKET DEVELOPMENT PROPERTIES: • Approved MF Boston/Cambridge • Downtown Urban re-development • Industrial Covered Land Plays 100K+SF Inside 128/495 • Adaptive Re-use & In-Fill SitesDowntown and inside 128 • E. Boston Development Ops About Boston City Group, Inc.: As a veteran commercial brokerage team within Coldwell Banker Real Estate, we are highly focused investment brokers with critical market intelligence and extensive transaction experience. In addition to our public competitive marketing process, our Off-Market platform provides an uncomplicated opportunity to sell and secure high-in-demand, quality investment and development opportunities of all types - from $1M to $100M+. We bring Sellers who prefer to stay out of a public process together with vetted, well-capitalized private and institutional Buyers who prefer to buy off-market. Principals Only. Buyers of Off-Market Properties are required to sign a CA/NDA prior to any of the properties being identified. If you would like information on our Off-Market Inventory, or are interested in Selling Your Property, please call 617-921-0161. Email: Info@BostonCityGroup.com.* This is a partial sampling of our current inventory, which turns over and changes often.Agents disclaim any and all representations or warranties as to the accuracy of this information.

Professional Medical Office Space 1351 Main St., Brockton, MA 7,905 Square Feet Medical Office space with space available and leases in place. The subject property has full handicap access. The Building has been well maintained with long time owner as property manager. The lot size for 1351 and 1329 is 1.42 acres which offers more than adequate space for the 2 properties. Excellent opportunity for investor to combine professional use of this property with the residential/multi family use of 1329 Main St.. Pre-approved qualified Buyers only.

Call now:

WILLIAM M. CALLAHAN REAL ESTATE 508-583-8000 • www.callahanre.com • email:bill@callahanre.com

V I S I T C L A S S I F I E D S. B A N K E R A N D T R A D E S M A N. C O M

BANKER & TRADESMAN

AUCTION

DECEMBER 4, 2017

AUCTION

MORTGAGEE’S FORECLOSURE AUCTION FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2017 AT 1:00 PM On the premises 2 ACADEMY PLACE ORLEANS, MA

4,000+- SQ. FOOT RESTAURANT BUILDING ON A 37,026 SQ. FOOT PARCEL UPSTAIRS CONTAINS 4 RENTAL BEDROOMS TERMS: $25,000 DEPOSIT AT THE TIME AND PLACE OF SALE. BALANCE DUE IN 30 DAYS.

All deposits must be in the form of certified check or bank cashier’s check. For further information on these and other properties or to join our mailing list please visit our website! www.re-auctions.com

31 New Chardon Street, Boston MA 02114 PH: 617-646-1019 F: 617-646-1290 MA. Lic. #835

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