Category: Spotlight Content

The hot humid weather is upon us and many are enjoying their vacation. The summer is a time for leisure and relaxation for many but the real estate industry does not seem to be on vacation.

A vibrant and diverse suburban community supplanted by light manufacturing and service industries, Randolph is centrally located 14 miles south of Boston with convenient access to major highway transportation corridors, as well as commuter rail and bus public transportation systems.

The brokers at CBRE|The Boulos Company are often asked which neighborhood in Portland might be next to experience major growth in the near future where a developer or investor can get in on the ground level as pricing may be lower than some of the more established neighborhoods. Over the last decade, downtown Portland has witnessed several areas undergo tremendous change and improvement including...

Actress Alyssa Milano first gained fame playing Tony Danza’s daughter on the television sitcom Who’s the Boss. The show ran for eight seasons, snagged ten Emmy and five Golden Globe nominations (winning one of each), and established Milano as a bone fide teen idol. While her star has dimmed since then, she continues to work in Hollywood and seems to be one of the few child stars in recent memory to grow into adulthood without well-publicized trips to rehab or jail.

Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 1031 allows a property owner, who holds property for “the productive use in a trade or business or for investment”, to defer paying any capital gains taxes if the property owner sells such property, identifies “like kind” property within forty-five days of the sale, and acquires other “like kind” property within 180 days of the sale. The theory behind Section 1031 is that real estate investors selling and reinvesting in new investment property are not cashing out of their investment, and that the replacement property is a continuation of the old investment.

The following is an excerpt from the 2017 KeyPoint Report on Eastern Massachusetts/Greater Boston. Supply, Occupancy, & Absorption: This year Eastern Mass. inventory grew moderately, reaching 194.6 million s/f, or an increase of 0.4%. No major center development occurred during the year. The largest gains came from the freestanding 136,000 s/f Life Time Athletic in Framingham and the 82,000 s/f Market Basket in Plymouth. Another addition was the expanded retail area at Prudential Center, to accommodate a 45,000 s/f Eataly food concept and Under Armour flagship.

The current insurance marketplace, with the exception of health insurance, continues to be favorable for the insurance buyer. The industry has abundant surplus and has experienced reasonably decent results. Most businesses will be able to negotiate flat rates and some businesses may even see rate reductions. Insurance premiums, however, need to be kept in perspective. They are only one component in the cost of risk. The indirect cost of risk actually exceeds premiums paid. This includes money spent managing risk, training employees to be safe, dealing with claims, funding uncovered claims among other costs.

In Brockton as the comeback continues, we are always looking to other success stories for inspiration and guidance. Why reinvent something if another has done well with a concept? The ideas may not always translate well, but in most cases the essence of the thoughts can be adapted to the situation at hand, so as to create an environment that may not look and feel like another, but surely offers a unique sense of place and a positive progress that can be built on. For example, Portsmouth, N.H. covers a large area, but gives users a sense that it is cozy and carefree. The streets wind around to give shoppers a small town feel while providing locally owned boutiques, bakeries, cafes, fine dining, theatre, entertainment and social collisions.

In this article I am going to address whether development/phasing rights in a phased condominium are real property, personal property, and/or contract rights. I have been treating development/phasing rights as real property since the early 1970s. Only recently have I learned that development/phasing rights in a phased condominium are still treated as personal property and/or contract rights by at least one of the major title insurance companies doing business in Massachusetts. It is time to resolve this issue once and for all.

As a borrower, you may have heard of interest rate swaps as a mechanism for managing the risk of interest rate fluctuations. In a swap, the borrower essentially trades the floating rate provided by its lender for a fixed rate of interest. This is achieved by the borrower entering into a separate transaction with a “swap counterparty”. The swap counterparty is often, but not always, the lender itself. 

Chittenden County has experienced a flurry of development and change in the last two years with the majority of growth occurring in the retail and residential rental markets. The closing of Burlington College led to the sale 60 of acres of waterfront and other property including their 77,000 s/f headquarters building to developer Eric Farrell. Construction on that land has now begun under the name Cambrian Rise, a 735 unit development containing a mix of multi-story condos and rental apartments. The development may also soon include residential housing, small studios, restaurants, shops and a hotel. Full build-out is estimated at 10 years.