Transit-Accessible Office and Multifamily Development To Continue Into 2019
December 14, 2018 - By Brendan Carroll - Perry ResearchBOSTON-Knowledge workers preferring to work in environments with automobile alternative commuting choices continued to rapidly increase in number in Greater Boston through the middle part of 2018, according to Perry Brokerage’s latest Node Report. A growing and even larger potential rider base is expanding with traditional drivers looking to escape historic levels of traffic congestion and workers moving from other markets with a desire to establish an auto-alternative oriented lifestyle.
Expanding concern over the current state of the region’s mobility offerings became a focal point of political elections, though current service is likely to dramatically improve within three years as new equipment and technologies are introduced to many of the region’s most over capacity transit nodes.
As businesses attempt to better understand a rapidly evolving set of key worker location preference characteristics, the development community works to understand needed supply in what is becoming clear as a long-term change in the arrangement of the region’s knowledge assets. Driven by rapidly shifting preferences, optimism over a more responsive total approach to transit alternatives from business and political leaders is increasing heading into 2019.
Of the 6.5 million sf of commercial inventory underway in Greater Boston, 4.1 million sf, or 63 percent, is within a five-minute walk of an MBTA rapid transit or commuter rail station; this is an increase from just 31 percent of the existing inventory, which has that level of close proximity.
Of the 21,211 housing units presently under construction in Greater Boston, 12,977, or 61 percent, are within a tenminute walk of an MBTA rapid transit or commuter rail station; this is an increase from just 43 percent of the existing inventory, which has that level of close proximity.