Since their acquisition, the firms refurbished the lobby and created an underground parking garage for top executive, spending over $40 million on improvements. In addition to the upgrades, they were able to offer lower rents than previous owners; even luring Bain Capital away from a Boston Properties owned building for a seven-floor lease in the Tower.

Under the deal conditions, Boston Properties paid $289.5 million in cash and assumed $640.5 million in debt, in the form of a securitized senior mortgage loan with a fixed, 5.68 percent interest due in January 2017.

Since its assembly in 1975, the Boston landmark has been known as a barometer for the real estate boom and bust. The 62-story glass skyscraper in Boston’s prestigious Back Bay neighborhood boasts over 2 million square feet of space, with roughly 1.7 million feet being available for rent, and an eight level parking garage with over 2,000 available parking spaces.

If you would like to live in the Back Bay neighborhood, or any of the other great Boston neighborhoods, please contact an agent at Warren Residential Group today to schedule an appointment. We would love to help you find your new Boston condo or luxury residence!

Instead, it could be as little as two years. In a bulletin to lenders April 14, mortgage giant Fannie Mae said it is relaxing its previous rules that prevented loan applicants who have participated in short sales or deeds in lieu of foreclosure from obtaining a new mortgage for extended periods of time. The new rules are scheduled to take effect July 1.

Homeowners who’ve done short sales – such as under the Obama administration’s new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program – will also be able to qualify for a mortgage in as little as two years. Though Fannie Mae officials declined to discuss the reasoning behind the changes, the bulletin to lenders said the company hopes to encourage troubled borrowers to work out solutions that avoid the heavy costs of foreclosure.

If  borrowers can demonstrate that their mortgage problems were directly attributable to “extenuating circumstances” – such as loss of employment, medical expenses or divorce – they may be able to qualify for new loans with minimum 10 percent down payments in just two years. Housing and consumer counseling advocates welcomed Fannie’s relaxation of rules that had penalized borrowers who lost their houses following layoffs, illness and other unforeseen catastrophic financial events.

“This is a positive move,” said Marietta Rodriguez, director of homeownership and lending for NeighborWorks America, a national nonprofit network created by Congress to assist with homeowner financial counseling and community development.

“We all know that there are many people who through no fault of their own have to sell” – but were blocked from repurchasing a house for four years or longer, even though they’d rebuilt their credit, had qualifying incomes, and were fully capable of handling a mortgage responsibly.

(Source:  HARNEY, KENNETH R.: The Nation’s Housing. April 25, 2010)

Great opportunity for a buyer to steal a gorgeous Beacon Hill home.  Originally priced at $8.95 million NOW $4.99.  The auction is to be held March 3, 2010 however all interested parties must tour and register beforehand.  Please contact us is you are interested in the 20 Brimmer Street auction.

“When developers Peter and Elizabeth Georgantas paid $2.25 million for a dilapidated 1860s Beacon Hill brownstone about four years ago, they saw the potential for a hefty profit.”

Of course the market was in a different shape back then and the developer thought nothing of spending upwards $4 million in renovations on the 5,400 sqft Brimmer Street beauty.  Nobody could predict the economic storm that lay ahead and with all the buy-rebuild-flip profits going on it’s easy to see where the buyer could put such money into the row house and expect to still make money of its sale.  But as we all know times have changed…

In an effort to move the home quickly Georgantas reduced the asking price from $8.96 to $7.95 million, and then again, last year, to $7 million.  Now it is hitting auction at $4.9

The home consists of five bedrooms, four baths, three powder rooms, and seven fireplaces…oh and a gorgeous wine cellar. Other upgrades include, imported italian marble in all baths, smart-home technology throughout, solarium , greenhouse, library and an enormous roof deck, heated flooring, and top of the line kitchen.

According to The Boston Globe, “The Georgantas purchased the Brimmer Street property and an adjacent building for $4.5 million with plans to return the 18 rental units back into two elegant single family homes.”

The photos do not do this home justice.  If you are interested please contact us at once.

The “Boston Yacht Haven” yacht club on Boston’s Commercial Wharf has just been forced to file for Chapter 7 liquidation of it’s assets.  The owner, Yovette Mumford, narrowly avoided a foreclosure auction in April by filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.  The Boston Yacht Haven was purchased in 2005 for $11.7 million and has a reported $10.1 million mortgage on it from Northern Bank & Trust.

Yovette Mumford said the original idea behind the purchase was to convert the yacht club into either a boutique hotel or luxury condos.  Given the spectacular location, perhaps one of the best on Boston’s Waterfront, both ideas would probably have been a tremendous success.  However, the Boston Yacht Haven’s closest neighbors at the Commercial Wharf condos have put a stop to any projects leaving Mumford operating a business she never seemed to intend to run.

Picture and Source: Banker & Tradesman

My Thoughts: I’d love to see someone pick this up and turn it into something like Mumford had imagined but, to be honest, I don’t see it happening anytime soon.  Given the current economic climate along with the fact that developing on the waterfront is difficult enough even with support of the neighbors (which I doubt this project would ever gain) this will probably remain a yacht club for years to come.

To search all Boston Waterfront Condos – CLICK HERE

To view Boston Waterfront Luxury Buildings – CLICK HERE

Foreclosures are all the rage in the media.  You hear about people losing their homes and complaining that they were duked into an adjustable rate mortgage that “they didn’t know would reset from 2% to 7%” almost every day in the news.  This ones a little different.

Earlier this month, Broadway Real Estate Partners LLC defaulted on the $700 mezzanine loan they took on the Hancock Tower.  The Hancock was part of a $3.3 billion portfolio acquisition by Broadway from local real estate firm Beacon Capital (talk about getting out at the right time!).

Broadway is now feeling the effects of a softening Boston commercial real estate market with tenant of the Hancock Tower vacating their spaces with downsizing and budget cuts.  These vacancies have brought the market value down below what is owed by Broadway on the Hancock.

Like in a home foreclosure, the first lender priority over anyone behind them in line.  That first lender is a developer out of Chicago named John Buck.  Buck stands to make a substantial gain if the property goes under since his loan was well below market value for the building.

My Thoughts:  I’m not suprised to hear about this happening.  Just like people investing at the top of the residential market, some investors are bound to be burnt.  What I still don’t understand is why some companies still pay the $60-100/sq. ft. to be in a building in the middle of a city.  If your company has no need to be near a city, why pay those prices?  I think after this downturn you will see a lot more office construction outside of cities.