Developers dub 45-acre Boston mixed-use campus 'Cambridge Crossing'

Dive Brief:

San Francisco developer Divco has changed the name of its 45-acre, mixed-use Boston-area development to Cambridge Crossing, according to The Boston Globe. The project was formerly referred to as NorthPoint.
The developer, which specializes in building life science and tech campuses, will include a park, five office buildings, and 2,400 condominiums and apartments as part of the project, reports Curbed Boston. Many of the buildings, according to Divco, will include ground-level retail, and at least one will feature a restaurant-lined, open-air plaza.
Divco, which should benefit from a Green Line station that is being built at Cambridge Crossing, is billing the 4.5 million-square-foot campus as a less expensive alternative to the pricier Kendall Square complex nearby. The project must still obtain approval from the three cities it borders — Cambridge, Somerville and Boston.

Dive Insight:

The Cambridge Crossing North Boston development is just the latest in a big development push in the city, though much of the attention has been focused on South Boston' Seaport District and the city's South End.

The Abbey Group's Exchange South End project, like Cambridge Crossing, is also hoping to lure life science and tech companies with its research and commercial space. The development will be completed in phases and is expected to begin construction late next year. In addition, the $600 million Seaport One project, with two mixed-use towers totaling 1.5 million square feet, just opened in the Seaport District.

Overall, as of May, the city had 14 million square feet of commercial and residential property under development. This figure, reported The Wall Street Journal, did not include 40 million square feet already permitted and nearing the construction phase. Of the new projects, office space represented about 20% and residential was approximately 80% of development.

At the time of The Journal report, there was concern that rising office vacancy rates meant that supply was outpacing demand, and, according to real estate company JLL's third-quarter office outlook, that is still the case, despite strong leasing activity, particularly for large spaces of 250,000 square feet or more.

The company expects vacancies to rise for at least the next few quarters, with more than 75 million square feet of space becoming available through the end of 2018 but only about 49% of that pre-leased. Even though new space is outrunning absorption, JLL said the market should balance out eventually.