So, 2 months ago to the day, we debuted our coverage of Boston’s new gold standard in luxury living:
Millennium Place
The first sizable downtown new development condo project in years is off to scorching start. Michael DiMella has been removed from his starring role in our initial post about Millennium Boston, asking “Millennium Place Opens, Will Sales Follow?” and has been replaced by the better looking and more eloquent partner at Charlesgate….um, yes, that would be me….
In that post Michael said:
Being basically the first condo project in the ground (since the recession) and having availability is probably going to work out great for Millennium,” said Michael DiMella, managing partner at Charlesgate Realty Group. “But it’s still a lot of units, so it will be an interesting sign to see how buyers react.
So….will it work out great? Will buyers react positively?
The first signs are in after 2 months of marketing.
The building is set to open for residency in October 2013. The sales center opened only 7 weeks ago, and already 70 of the 256 units (27%) are accounted for (55 contracts and 15 reservations). Typically this number of units would need +-2 years of marketing before full absorption. Reservations may slow down a little after the initial rush, but my estimate is that Millennium Place will only need about a a year to sell out this project, which would be a huge home run for the project.
Why so bullish, you ask?
Two reasons:
As most people interested in real estate know (especially those who read our blog), inventory is at its lowest point in close to 10 years and mortgage rates are at all time lows, so the core downtown Boston real estate market is extremely competitive. To compound this, there is a lot of cash out there in the hands of investors waiting for opportunities, and residential real estate is a darling market segment for investors right now. So the demand is coming from both owner occupants and investors.
Now, let’s talk about Millennium Place specifically. The developers, Millennium Partners, are no joke. They are one of the country’s foremost developers. They developed Millennium Tower in San Francisco, which is recognized as one of the top 9 residential buildings in the world, and only 1 of 2 on that list that reside in North America. They bring a level of service and amenities to their properties that is unrivaled.
They also get what it takes to value engineer a product that has “value” to the marketplace. More efficient floor plans lead to layouts with greater functionality and lower price points (as the square footage is not unnecessarily high). They staff all of their own people (concierge, valet parkers, property managers, cleaners, etc.). This leads to lower condo fees (+-$.70 per square foot as opposed to +-$1.25 per square foot in comparable buildings) as well, which will be a big draw to many people frustrated by the higher HOA fees at places like Battery Wharf, the Mandarin, Intercontinental, etc.).
The building also has top notch finishes and state of the art amenities like: a club/bar room, dining room, film screening room, owner’s lounge, mega fitness center, green space, and a soon to be announced high end dining destination onsite.
Millennium Place is made up of 256 residences ranging from:
Sample Unit Renderings & Floor Plans:
Stay tuned for some more in depth analysis on the building and updates on the sales progress…..
