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THE BOSTON GUARDIAN February 21, 2020 Vol. 4 Issue 35 Wanna Be on The 13th Floor? Medical Research Is Photo: Bob Henry Nearing Kenmore Sq By Joe Walsh a bizarre ruse apparently meant to Would you think twice about save building managers from their By Joe Walsh neighborhood’s borders. Buildings LMA this year. California-based renting on the 13th floor? more superstitious clients. Boston’s largest medical research are changing hands and new lab firm IQHQ is underwriting the For high rises in the United However, the unlucky number district may eventually stretch to campuses are in the works, turning long-delayed Fenway Center States, skipping the number 13 was appears to be losing its infamy. Kenmore Square. the streets near Fenway Park project, which would place a lab once a standard convention. Many Most of Boston’s 20 tallest As hospitals jockey for space into the medical industry’s next complex above the Mass Pike, and taller structures referred to their buildings do not bother skipping inside the Longwood Medical frontier. it plans to buy a nearby medical 13th floor as 14 and renumbered the 13th floor, according to a Area (LMA), some researchers and One real estate investor placed building on Brookline Avenue. The the rest of the building accordingly, Continued on Page 2 developers are looking beyond the two large bets on the fringes of the Continued on Page 2 Affordable Housing Is Paul DeLeo Is New D4 Neighborhood Liaison Bypassing Downtown By Joe Walsh The Boston Police Department By Dan Rabb (BPD) has a new liaison to the Back Bay, South End and Fenway. Less than ten percent of Sergeant Paul DeLeo now leads affordable housing units created the Community Service Office in Boston last year were in the (CSO) for D4, a police precinct downtown neighborhoods, city covering a wide swath of the data shows. downtown neighborhoods. He The Walsh administration started in the role last Monday, after released numbers last week meant Sergeant James Freeman left the to tout its success in creating affordable housing throughout neighborhood to supervise a unit in Boston in 2019. Indeed, more East Boston. than a quarter of new housing DeLeo is a 15-year veteran units permitted last year will only with the department, working in be made available to residents precincts from Brighton to Roxbury. Sergeant Paul DeLeo earning below certain income After becoming a sergeant in 2017, thresholds. The bump in income he worked as a D4 patrol supervisor residents and businesses, to solve restricted housing comes largely as before this latest assignment. quality of life issues across the a result of the city’s Inclusionary A team of six CSO officers will district. Development Policy (IDP), which report to DeLeo. He said he is “I genuinely like helping people,” mandates that developers of large looking forward to working with he said. “It’s going to be interesting Continued on Page 2 Photo: Bob Henry this team, and with neighborhood not being tied to the radio.” THE BOSTON GUARDIAN 2 | February 21, 2020 13th Floor hotels also ban black cats, broken mirrors or downtown cautiously avoids both 13 take it out because it’s your choice, why even towering ladders. and 44, an unlucky number in East and deal with it?” said residential broker Kevin Continued from Page 1 Prospective hotel guests rarely fret about Southeast Asian cultures. The developers did Ahearn. “It’s just a judicious thing to do.” 13, noted Suzanne Wenz, director of not respond to requests for comment. The practice appears to be waning. The review by The Boston Guardian. Almost all of marketing for the Park Plaza Hotel and the Local real estate brokers say 13 is rarely a Moxy, a downtown hotel aimed at millenni- the city’s office skyscrapers bravely lease out Newbury. The practice probably endures in dealbreaker for condo owners. Most clients als, does not skip 13, even though its older older hotels because of tradition, she said. do not worry about the number, and 13th space on floor number 13, and some newer corporate siblings like the Park Plaza still “It’s just traditionally been that way,” Wenz floor condos are unfortunately not available residential high rises and hotels have also follow the longstanding tradition. said. “I personally have not heard of anyone at a discounted rate for daring buyers thrown away the practice. For hotels and residential buildings, this complaining about being on the 13th floor.” willing to try their luck. That being said, Hotels may be the city’s last bastion of On the residential side, most recent some condo owners are in favor of skipping change may be driven partly by consumers. construction superstition. Spots like the Park developments are fearless, offering 13th floor 13 in order to accommodate the small Superstition is not unheard of nowadays, Plaza Hotel, the Custom House Tower and floor apartments and condos with apparent percentage of people who hold this supersti- but few people will go out of their way to the new Newbury Hotel still go directly from impunity. Still, a few new buildings remain tion thinking they may as well not miss the avoid an unlucky number. floors 12 to 14, a comfort to triskaideka- holdouts. The Viridian in the Fenway skips sale. “I don’t know that people give it a lot of phobic guests. It is unclear whether these the number, and the Millennium Tower “If you don’t have to put it in, and you can thought these days,” said Wenz. Medical Research As a result, some researchers may move “Fenway has become an extension of “We’re scouring almost on a daily basis for to bordering areas along Brookline Avenue, Longwood, but clearly, the success of Fenway what may become available.” Continued from Page 1 Argys said. He believes investors like IQHQ as a lab [area] is the fact that it can appeal to If institutions and researchers are willing are attracted to the edges of the LMA because tenants from Cambridge,” said Nelson, who to extend their reach beyond the LMA, company claims it is not currently planning of that unending demand. was involved in IQHQ’s purchase. developers could follow. The newly renovat- to redevelop the site, but it is optimistic “You have some of the world’s best scientists Some area hospitals already view Brookline ed 401 Park already leases space to several about the neighborhood’s potential. who are right there,” explained Argys, who Ave as a convenient satellite space. Beth medical institutions. Plus, the ambitious “It has great tenants and it is an appealing also serves as Children’s Hospital’s chief Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Fenway Center project is focusing on biolabs location that is accessible by public transpor- administrative officer. “As people look to bought a medical building on the street more because the complex lies in the LMA’s tation, and in a neighborhood with a history expand and create more wet lab space, it’s no than 20 years ago, and some of its offices shadow, propping up rents and helping to of full occupancy and a bright future,” surprise to me that there are folks interested are based inside the building that IQHQ is underwrite the cost of building atop the IQHQ President Tracy A. Murphy said in a in providing space.” purchasing, according to a spokesperson. Mass Pike, according to developers. statement through a spokesperson. The LMA’s hospitals are not the only Children’s Hospital also has not ruled Proximity to nearby teaching hospitals Hospital leaders are not shocked to see drivers of lab demand, though. Researchers out a northward expansion. The hospital is key for researchers, LMA leaders note. strong interest in real estate near the LMA. are also drawn to the Fenway because of its rents office space in 401 Park, just across And as demand for space continues to soar, The area’s institutions haul in billions of transit links and newly vibrant restaurant the Emerald Necklace from the LMA, and the neighborhood could support a research dollars in federal research grants, driving an scene, making it a strong alternative to spatial constraints could eventually force it to boom just beyond its borders. insatiable need for new labs. But the LMA is Kendall Square, explained Frank Nelson, lease labs slightly outside of the area, noted “The researchers want to be close to the already so densely packed that expansion is executive managing director of real estate Vice President for Research Administration hospitals. The physicians want to be close a pricey and sometimes impossible proposi- firm Newmark Knight Frank. IQHQ’s Gus Cervini. to the researchers,” Argys said. “People want tion, explained Dick Argys, the chair of moves in the neighborhood affirm this “Space is a currency in this realm, and we to be close to the action and where their LMA cooperative group MASCO. nascent popularity, Nelson added. just don’t have enough of it,” Cervini said. colleagues are.” Affordable Housing to build the affordable units mandated by senior policy official at the Boston Housing makes it easier for families to use housing IDP elsewhere in the city. IDP gives develop- Authority. “To me, that’s a very important vouchers in high income areas. On the city Continued from Page 1 ers the option of including income restricted policy goal, and why you’ll see me skewing level, Bok says she is encouraged by recent units in their building, or paying to build a in favor of on-site IDP.” creative efforts to leverage city owned parcels greater number of offsite units. Bok says that while offsite IDP has histor- residential projects also create a certain into the creation of affordable housing.