BOSTON—The Peebles Corp. chief investment officer Tawan Davis says the company, which entered the market here in January with its designation as the developer of a major mixed-use project in Back Bay, is looking to expand its presence in Boston in a major way.
Davis, who will be participating at the RealShare Boston 2015 on Wednesday, July 22 at the Omni Parker House, tells Globest.com, “We have a goal of building a very sizable business in Boston.” He adds that over the long term the company's intent is to become “a $2-billion developer in Boston.”
In January the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and MassDOT selected The Peebles Corp. as the developer for Turnpike Air Rights Parcel 13 at the corner of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue in the Back Bay and the adjacent Hynes Convention Center station on the Green Line.
The $400-million Peebles' Viola Back Bay proposal calls for a 390,000-square-foot development to include 85 rental and 88 condominium residential units, a 156-key hotel, 20,000 square feet of retail space, and 138 accessory parking spaces. The project also will feature new, state-of-the-art, fully accessible entrances to Hynes Station on Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street, as well as accessibility and other improvements throughout the station and replacing aging Green Line electrical equipment. Peebles bested Boston Residential Group, which proposed student housing, retail, and hotel uses, and Trinity Financial, which proposed residential and retail uses, for the air rights designation.
Peebles and partners MBTA and MassDOT are in the process of acquiring the site from the state and Davis says the company expects to break ground on the venture in the next 24 months to 36 months. Peebles is a privately held national real estate investment and development company specializing in residential, hospitality, retail, and mixed-use commercial properties. The company's portfolio of completed and current developments total more than 6 million square feet and $5 billion in gateway cities such as: New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, San Francisco, Miami and Miami Beach.
Davis says that the Boston economy is strong and cited the hotel and office markets as particularly ripe for investment. He terms the Boston hotel sector as one of the top markets in the country.
At Wednesday's RealShare Boston event, Davis will be a panelist on the Investment and Finance Outlook roundtable that will also feature Greg Lauze, co-founder and managing partner, NorthBridge CRE Advisors; Kevin McCall, CEO, Paradigm Properties and Robert Plumb, managing director, AEW Capital Management. Other presentations will include an Industry Leaders Power Panel, a look at the biotech real estate boom in Boston, as well as a roundtable discussion on the hot multifamily market in Boston. Each panel will feature key executives and analysts in the respective fields of real estate and investment.
Further information, including registration and sponsorship opportunities, can be found at RealShare Boston. The event begins at 7:30 a.m. with registration and concludes at 12:30 p.m.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
