12.06.2022

One party giving: Realtors dig deep for local Dems | Progressive stars, clashing political aspirations | Back to the office not dead yet | Contrarian Boston scoops garner attention | Quick hits | About Contrarian Boston |

News tips? Story ideas? Email us at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com

Back to the office, part two: Tech firms and other companies want employees back in their cubes

The much ballyhooed return to the office we heard so much about in the media back in September was an abysmal bust.

Just a third to half of all offices in downtown Boston are filled with actual workers on any given day, said Tyler McGrail, executive managing director in Newmark’s Boston office, at the annual market overview put on by NAIOP Massachusetts.

“Obviously, people are not coming into the office,” McGrail said at the commercial real estate firm’s big event.

Tyler McGrail, executive managing director of Newmark’s Boston office, spoke at NAIOP Massachusetts’ annual market overview

For now, companies are trying to lure employees back with upscale office suites and other amenities, boosting demand for the newest and best space in downtown Boston amid an otherwise depressed market, McGrail said.

That said, companies are scared to push too hard and potentially lose talent in a tight labor market.

“They want to get their remote workers back to the office,” McGrail said. “Everyone would like to get people back.”

Meanwhile, companies are likely to ramp up the back-to-the-office drumbeat as we head into 2023, the Newmark executive said, providing a lifeline for Boston’s battered downtown as city officials struggle to revive shuttered shops and restaurants.

One of a number of empty storefronts in downtown Boston.

Sublease space has more than doubled to 8 million square feet, office building owners are offering “free rent,” and there have been no skyscraper sales this year, sparking the term “tower failure” among brokers, McGrail said.

However, if the economy, as expected, softens significantly or slides into a recession next year, here’s betting we will see an end to the wooing and soft-sell tactics by employers.

Rather, companies will stop pleading and start demanding employees come back to the office.

Frenemies? Wu and Healey meet for first time since election

Gov.-elect Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu are the rising stars of the Bay State’s political firmament.

So their summit meeting Tuesday in Boston is destined to be closely scrutinized in the local media, especially for any sign of friction.

Both undoubtedly are progressives. But Healey has tried to cast herself as the Dems version of Baker, while Wu is outspoken in her support for ideas like rent control and an immediate ban on all new natural gas hookups.

The two also backed different AG candidates, while Wu helped raise money for the reelection of uber progressive state Sen. Becca Rausch, even as Healey declined to endorse the Needham Democrat.

But there may be a more fundamental reason for the tension between the two big guns of Massachusetts politics. Uneasy allies now, Healey and Wu’s political futures may very well be destined to collide in the future.

That’s because every ambitious pol in Massachusetts is eagerly awaiting the day U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, now 76, finally hangs up his political spurs.

And when that day comes, Healey and Wu could very well wind up battling for the same job.

Election twist: Big Real Estate dissed the MassGOP and put their money on Healey and the Dems

How atrocious a candidate was Geoff Diehl?

The Trump fan boy not only lost the governor’s race by a lopsided, 28 percent margin, he failed to get a dime from the Realtors, no small feat for a Republican candidate.

The National Association of Realtors’ political action fund pumped more than $131,000 into the campaign coffers of now Gov.-elect Maura Healey and thirteen different state legislative candidates across Massachusetts, state campaign finance records show. All but one were Democrats.

It probably didn’t help that Diehl, apparently angling for the NIMBY vote, talked of trying to scuttle a new state law aimed at spurring construction of new apartments and condos in the suburbs.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

The Realtors shelled out money to help buy voter lists for Healey, while also paying more than $4,000 for digital ads.

Developers also gave Diehl the cold shoulder, especially the bigger name players.

Dick Friedman, developer of the $850 million One Dalton luxury condo tower in Boston and a longtime Democratic party stalwart, dropped $1,000 into Healey’s campaign coffers. Ditto for Bob Epstein, whose Abbey Group developed the 45 Province St. condo tower, and Mahmood Malihi, co-president of Leggat McCall Properties, a long-time powerhouse on the suburban development scene.

Healey took in roughly $90,000 from real estate developers, executives, brokers, and other property players from May through September, industry publication Bisnow reported at the time. We suspect the total figure was well over $100,000 given Healey began getting big contributions from the real estate sector not long after she launched her gubernatorial bid earlier in the year.

By contrast, Diehl took in just a few thousand dollars, mainly from small-time contractors.

Guess who’s reading Contrarian Boston?

That would be The Boston Globe, which recently cited Contrarian Boston on a pair of stories we first reported here.

Here’s a Globe piece by Andrew Brinker that ran Sunday on how the suburbs are dealing with the new MBTA Communities law, designed to boost apartment and condo construction. The Globe story cited our Nov. 5 story on the Baker administration’s decision to yank money from local housing authorities in towns that have balked at the new housing production law.

The Globe, in an editorial, also cited Contrarian Boston’s Oct. 21 story on the town of Kingston’s interest in potentially shutting down its commuter rail station to avoid - you guessed it - complying with the MBTA Communities law.

A shout out as well to CommonWealth Magazine, which interviewed CB’s editor/publisher on the state’s housing crisis for The Codcast.

And thanks to Contrarian Boston readers for all your great story tips. Keep them coming!

Quick hits:

That would be Mark Development’s planned Riverside lab complex and Alexandria’s lab proposal at 275 Grove St.: “Two Big Newton Lab Projects Delayed by Economic Headwinds” Steve Adams/Banker & Tradesman

Um, something’s wrong here: “Wayland police chief resigning after ‘inappropriate sexual relationship,’ town will pay him close to $400,000 as part of settlement” Boston Herald

Go Jack go! Looks like Jack Smith, the new special counsel, truly is not fooling around: “Justice Dept. subpoenas Ariz., Mich., Wis. officials for Trump communications” Washington Post

Just a 35 percent chance of a soft landing, banking bigshot says: “Goldman CEO David Solomon Prepares for a Possible Recession” Wall Street Journal

About Contrarian Boston

I have fielded emails over the past couple of months asking what Contrarian Boston is about.

Here’s a link to our mission statement – you can find it in the “about” section.

For a more prosaic, nuts-and-bolts description, read on.

An online newsletter, Contrarian Boston publishes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In Contrarian Boston you’ll find analysis of the day’s news, and original reporting as well.

Our focus is:

·      Politics and all levels of governance, good and bad, with an emphasis on state and local, with some national mixed in;

·      Economic growth and business, especially real estate, housing and new development projects;

·      The media and why it does what it does;

·      Education, from school board spats to the doings of multibillion-dollar university endowments;

·      And whatever else catches our fancy.