For about two years before the great crash of 2008, Boston experienced an increased number of large luxury condo constructions in the Back Bay, Beacon Hill and South End neighborhoods. As one may expect, our experience in working on luxury residences including, the Mandarin Residences, The W Hotel Residences, and 45 Province Street has shown us that high end condo projects were quick to adopt advanced building systems in order to give their occupants the utmost in comfort, control and safety.
Since the downturn in the economy and in particular, the real estate market, there has been a shift toward developing affordable, conservative apartments rather than condos; popularity has shifted from the two and three bedroom units, to one bedrooms and studios getting snatched up by young professionals and recent graduates. Recently, areas like Cambridge, South Boston and the Seaport and Innovation Districts have become increasingly trendy and high demand in new residencies, including, 63 Melcher St, Watermark (Cambridge), Russia Wharf, etc. and West Square.
Our most recently completed project at the South End’s Castle Square Apartments follows this trend of urban renewal with an economically smart “face-lift”. However, similar to the high end residences, developers were still interested in advanced systems, particularly when it came to energy management because they understood that this was an important value proposition for potential tenants. By enhancing the current property’s HVAC and boiler system with state-of-the-art energy efficient technology, along with completing the nation’s largest Deep Energy Retrofit, Castle Square and its tenants are able to save over 50% on gas and electricity costs, and reduce its energy demand and consumption with managed energy practices. Once the renovation is completed it is expected to achieve U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Gold Certification.
It’s interesting to see that despite the fact that the market has shifted, there is still a consistent focus on technology and advanced systems and the benefits they can provide to owners and tenants. No matter where the market heads next, upscale or down, we fully expect that smarter buildings will be in the mix.
