[HN Gopher] Boston built a ton of lab buildings. Now many are empty
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Boston built a ton of lab buildings. Now many are empty
Author : ilamont
Score : 19 points
Date : 2024-03-24 13:17 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.boston.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.boston.com)
| black_13 wrote:
| Turn to housing
| ssl-3 wrote:
| That sounds easy, but it's expensive and difficult. The
| infrastructure (plumbing, HVAC, electric, egress) needs of
| office and other commercial spaces are very different compared
| to what residential units need.
|
| So, for example: Bathrooms. While there may have been one or
| two [sets of] bathrooms per section of floor in commercial use,
| and this worked fine, residential tenants want at least one
| full bathroom all for themselves in their relatively small 1,
| 2, or 3-bedroom spread.
|
| Or kitchens: What might have been a few limited break-room-type
| kitchenettes per floor needs to be a full kitchen, per-unit.
|
| Those pipes need to live somewhere. (And this can be
| accomplished, but it's a somewhat monumental task to design and
| implement.)
| alephnerd wrote:
| A similar issue is happening in San Francisco in Mission Bay,
| who's builders are the exact same as those in Kendall Square
| GenerWork wrote:
| Commercial real estate is still getting absolutely destroyed by
| Covid repercussions. I honestly don't know how things will turn
| around unless we get a bad recession where employers say "Hey, if
| you want a job, come into the office 5 days a week".
| djohnston wrote:
| In commercial real estate in general it's unsurprising, but you
| can't do lab work from home. The article indicates that labs
| are suffering from an industry slowdown, which is a bit
| different than everyone wfh.
| mlazos wrote:
| Honestly I'm tired of landlords expecting good returns, I'm glad
| they had this wake up call that yes, in fact there is risk in
| every investment. What really irks me is when they prefer vacancy
| to lowering rents.
| lsllc wrote:
| I don' think it's a bad gamble, it'll just take longer then
| expected to lease all of this. IMHO, I think the Boston "tech
| hub" has pivoted in the last 20 years to biotech/life sciences.
| Kendall in particular seems to have more and more biotech,
| multiple new buildings around the Science Museum and Assembly Sq.
| Even Rt 128 "the computer commute" is ... well is far less techy
| these days (no more DEC, Prime). Who are the big s/w companies
| still based in Boston? EMC, Akamai? ...?
|
| My opinion is that the pivot is driven by non-competes [without a
| much needed CA style prohibition]. Long ago you needed expensive
| computer time or pricy tools to write software, but these days
| you don't need a VAX to write software or an expensive MSDN
| subscription provided by your employer. You can do it on your
| personal laptop at home with open source tools -- your employer's
| non-competes significantly stifle this sort of innovation.
| However, Biotech and life sciences needs expensive lab space,
| specialized plumbing and infrastructure and complex equipment --
| you can't really cook up a new drug in your kitchen on the
| weekends as you might with some new software idea.
|
| So I think there's still a ton of super-smart people coming out
| of the universities in the Boston area, but the software folks
| are being drawn elsewhere (Silicon Valley), whilst the biotech
| ones stay because of the inertia here.
| screye wrote:
| Boston is in a mildly risky position right now. Boston's main
| draws are slowly becoming less appealing.
|
| We seem to have reached peak education a few years ago, and I
| don't see it growing much more in the next decade. Their public
| k12 schools are still amazing, but that's more so a testament to
| the outer suburbs than the core urban area. Public transportation
| was a huge draw, and it's in dire straits. The 'next tech hub'
| thing never took off, with Austin, LIC, NJ & Atlanta growing
| faster than Boston. Biotech is doing great, but as it moves from
| academia to industry....I'm seeing a slow siphoning of biotech
| talent into the bay area.
|
| The biggest issue is how well NYC is doing. Boston was always a
| great way to experience NYC-lite. But the mass gentrification of
| LIC, Brooklyn and Jersey City has now made it possible to have
| NYC-lite within NYC itself. So it makes Boston less appealing.
|
| As far as cities go, Boston is still doing amazing. But I am
| going to change my optimism around it from 'best positioned to
| see massive growth' to 'good city that does 1 or 2 things well'.
|
| Thankfully for Boston their problems seem solvable. Give
| incentives to MIT/Harvard grads to set up startups locally. Make
| it easier to build housing and fix public transport....the city
| will be back to #1 on my highest growth potential list.
|
| P.S: I say this in jest, but make DeSantis ship a few more
| migrants up to new england. The Mexican food scene is trash and
| needs help.
| alephknoll wrote:
| > Boston was always a great way to experience NYC-lite.
|
| Since when? Who goes to boston for the 'nyc-lite' experience?
|
| > But the mass gentrification of LIC, Brooklyn and Jersey City
| has now made it possible to have NYC-lite within NYC itself.
|
| What are you talking about? LIC and Brooklyn are part of NYC.
| It is the NYC experience. Are you confusing NYC with Manhattan?
|
| > So it makes Boston less appealing.
|
| Nobody moves to boston for a NYC-lite experience. Have you ever
| been to NYC or Boston?
|
| > P.S: I say this in jest, but make DeSantis ship a few more
| migrants up to new england. The Mexican food scene is trash and
| needs help.
|
| What?
| vineyardmike wrote:
| > Since when? Who goes to boston for the 'nyc-lite'
| experience?
|
| I've lived in both. This is a thing. NYC fans will say that
| nothing compares and only NYC is NYC, but people outside it
| do think of Boston as a baby NYC.
|
| It has a ton of similarities to their urban fabric, but it's
| just saw smaller. It has similar architecture, people,
| weather, etc. it's a very walkable city, with a vibrant
| cultural scene.
|
| It's just... less than NYC. Less food choice, less cultural
| options, smaller, less transit, less jobs, less people, etc.
| mc32 wrote:
| Once rates go down and borrowing becomes easy again, I think they
| will see Biotech tenants move in. I think lots of people who
| would start something are staying put because they can't raise
| money at reasonable terms now. Same As SSF.
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