“Smart” Real Estate Investing in the Greater Boston Area

The Greater Boston Area is home to top-tier universities, exceptional scientific talent, and extensive supporting infrastructure. It also hosts the largest concentration of life sciences and biotech companies in the world. You might say it’s a "smart" place for real estate development.

Of the top five "talent clusters" in the United States, Boston produces the highest number of PhD graduates in the Life Sciences discipline, with the number consistently increasing every year. The number of PhD graduates in Boston has increased by 32% since 2010, whereas San Francisco, for example, has seen its number decrease by 6%. The universities producing these PhD’s in Boston are among the finest in the world.

The PhD’s tend to stick around and build careers in the Greater Boston Area. Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, Quincy, Braintree, and surrounding areas contain over 730 companies in the Life Sciences industry. Blue-chip companies like Biogen, Pfizer, and Sanofi-Aventis, and world-class medical campuses like Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital all call the Life Sciences Corridor home.

Vacancy rates currently sit at less than 10%, as a proliferation of companies ensures ample demand for working space. That commodity remains at a premium, but supply shortages can be remedied through redevelopment via Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs).

QOZs provide a unique opportunity to meet growing demand for additional space. The life science market is currently growing at a rate of 4.5% year-over-year in the Boston metro area. The demand is there—meaning the supply of office space, housing, and retail is ripe to catch up.

The Capital Hall Partners’ team has extensive experience not only in real estate development in the Greater Boston markets, but also in managing QOZ opportunities. Our sights are now set to Boston.

The Opportunity

Capital Hall Partners is developing Gateway – a 3.7-acre mixed-use life science campus located within a QOZ in Somerville. The site sits within a commercial planning area zoned for life science/office, residential, and office (amenity retail), with density permitting development of 600,000 to 1,300,000 square feet.

The Gateway site is in an ideal location along McGrath Highway, one quarter of a mile from a +30-acre mixed-use Cambridge Crossing development. This development is a mixed-use life science oriented campus which recently leased 900,000 square feet at a $99 NNN rate, and sits approximately half a mile from Cambridge’s Kendall Square Life Science Center. Total capitalization for buildout of Gateway is estimated at $500,000,000 to $1 billion.

Burgeoning Interest in the Greater Boston Area

Greater Boston’s QOZ sector is experiencing unprecedented investor interest. Case-in-point: the 4.7-acre Garvey site in Everett, one of the fastest-growing communities in Massachusetts with a residential rental vacancy rate of 1%.

Located in a newly created redevelopment district with tremendous potential, the Garvey site is situated near mass transit, within 3 miles of both Logan Airport and Boston Financial Center, and roughly 1.5 miles from the newly opened Wynn Encore Casino—which employs 5,000 workers.

Capital Hall Partners plans to develop a 650-unit workforce and multifamily residential (MF) complex at Garvey in two phases, utilizing wood-frame construction.

Conclusion

The Greater Boston Area holds tremendous value for real estate development, as new facilities can serve to support a rapidly growing and impactful sector of the U.S. economy: biotechnology and life sciences. Real estate development in the area can not only support growing companies and bring more jobs to the community, it can also support broader economic development and housing for the existing community, 'lifting all boats' in the process.

The end goal for Capital Hall Partners, and for the broader Qualified Opportunity Zone program, is to use new (and in the case of Capital Hall Partners, sustainable) developments to uplift the local economy with greater opportunities. We’re seeking profit with social purpose.

Join us as we pursue these goals in Boston.

Capital Hall Partners is a privately-held real estate investment and development firm. We have over 50 years of experience over multiple real estate cycles, with a current focus on value-oriented investments in Qualified Opportunity Zones in the Los Angeles, Phoenix, & Boston areas. Our commitment to investors is to preserve capital, deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns, be trustworthy and transparent.

If you would like to learn more about Capital Hall Partners, Qualified Opportunity Zones, or our work in Boston, please contact us today at info@caphall.com .

This is presented only for informational and educational purposes and is not intended to interpret laws or regulations. This is based upon information generally available to the public from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty representation, express or implied, has been made as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein and is not an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any security or other instruments. Additionally, this is not intended to represent advice or a recommendation of any kind, as it does not consider the specific investment objectives, financial situation, applicable risk factors, and/or particular needs of any individual client or investor and should not be relied upon as the basis for investment decisions.