Mid-Luxury For-Sale Residential: Telford 180 & The Mark
Thesis
As the Boston economy emerged from the impacts of the Global Financial Crisis, we saw an opportunity to capitalize on an undersupply of moderately priced for-sale residential product at a time of population growth for the City of Boston. Owing to a combination of capital market factors, the significant majority of new multi-family residential properties being added to the market was priced to a luxury user base and was predominantly for-rent product.
At the same time, some of Boston’s established neighborhoods were undergoing significant demographic changes and being transformed by widespread real estate and economic development activity.
We identified two of these neighborhoods in particular – Allston and East Boston – as prime markets to serve the “mid-luxury”, largely young working professional, first time condominium buyer.
Execution
We acquired two previously permitted sites – Telford 180 located on Western Avenue in Allston, adjacent to the Charles River and less than half a mile from Harvard Business School, and The Mark located on the rapidly developing East Boston waterfront – and took each through an expedited community process to modify the entitlements and improve elements of the project design to meet contemporary market demands.
Our development plans yielded two unique projects which paired ample amenity packages and thoughtfully curated architecture with the cost effectiveness of wood frame construction and other intentional design strategies. The changes enabled us to deliver a highly attractive product at a price point considerably below other for-sale product in the Boston market.
As a result of this strategy, sales velocity and pricing were very strong, with Telford 180 selling out completely nine months before project completion and The Mark achieving substantial sellout before completion (in spite of the impacts of the Covid pandemic). Both projects achieved prices materially higher than our original underwriting.
