Boston Properties Plans 300,000 SF Project

As if they did not already have enough to deal with, Boston Properties is at it again. The real estate investment trust is pushing ahead with a major office project in suburban Boston, with company officials acknowledging that they are planning a 300,000-sf building at the site of a former oil tank farm. Chestnut Hill-based W/S Development is also a partner in the deal.

“It’s a terrific location for a first-class office building,” says a broker familiar with the property on Jones Road. The source also maintains that the development will be well-received by companies scrambling to find adequate quarters. “The marketplace needs the space,” says the source. “In all areas, we are badly undersupplied.”

Nowhere is that more true than in Waltham, considered the most desirable office destination in the suburbs. With a 4.7% vacancy rate, according to Meredith & Grew, the 20-million-sf Route 128/Mass Pike submarket has barely 900,000 sf available, and virtually nothing contiguous over 50,000 sf. After beginning the year with rental rates in the mid-$30 per sf range, Waltham is now commanding rents above $50 per sf.