UrbanMeritage Launches $300M Avantage Newbury Platform at ICSC
May 21, 2017 - By Joe Clements
BOSTON—Against the backdrop of this spring’s International Council of Shopping Centers ReCon 2017 convention kicking off today in Las Vegas, UrbanMeritage moments ago launched Avantage Newbury, a $300 million “curated retail program” which its architects proclaim will challenge the conventional approach to retail real estate and provide “a stable platform for creating long-term success in Boston.” Internationally acclaimed Newbury Street’s biggest landlord and “advocate for an exceptional retail environment” previously created The Newbury Line, an assemblage of nearly two dozen buildings focused on its namesake street acquired by Jamestown for $226.5 million in 2011.
“We are excited to introduce a new brand to Newbury Street,” UrbanMeritage co-founder Michael T. Jammen says in a prepared statement provided first to therealreporter.com in which he further details that “We believe in and have invested with brands in the future of street retail in Boston. If brands seek to connect with customers, where they are, and how they are, the street retail on Newbury Street has no comparison.”
UrbanMeritage says it is applying ”experience and vision” acquired over the past decade to the Avantage Newbury endeavor which is aimed at providing retailers an advantage “by placing the right retailer in the right space, nurturing the customer populartion, and being an advocate for street retail in Boston.”
Avantage Newbury’s territory is not only centerpiece of metropolitan Boston’s vibrant shopping landscape, its arrival comes at a time when the global allure of the famed boulevard is being enhanced by one of the country’s fastest growing economies accentuated by the arrival of General Electric to the mix and a luxury condo market so hale a Back Bay residential unit just traded at an astounding $40 million, that building within quick walking distance of Newbury Street. “New investment in business, education, infrastructure and real estate make the city a strong choice for retailers seeking to grow a dedicated customer base,” UrbanMeritgage observes in its statement which further points to Newbury Street’s leading role on the retail front throughout New England.
The program introduced at ICSC is the brainchild of UrbanMeritage and CO OP, with the team vowing to maximize Avantage Newbury’s potential. In the statement provided Real Reporter, CO OP co-founder Jim Moran notes “today’s highly competitive retail environment is changing” while relaying that the Avantage Newbury brand “reflects these dramatic shifts through an informed, curated team who lives and breaths the street dynamics of Newbury Street and its varies shoppers.”
UrbanMeritage is a private real estate partnership whose founders Jammen and Vincent G. Norton Jr. have over 50 years of collective real estate experience and which since its own launch in 2006 has joined forces with Novaya Real Estate Ventures, a company active in various facets of CRE. Novay’s whose platform extends well beyond New England, although its founders matriculated from Taurus Investment Holdings, the Hub-based group led by President Peter Merrigan which put together the portfolio of buildings bought by Jamestown in 2011.
Founding principals of Novaya are James Alden, Peter Carbone III, Scott Tully and Jeffrey Theobald. CO OP is a brand company whose platform provides a “collaborative, human approach” that intends to produce creative strategies and experiences similar to Avantage Newbury, undertakings “that unlock the greatest values for our clients,” via a program weighing business, internal and external objectives to forge “robust brands that actively drive towards success.” The group has offices in Boston and New York City.
Vincent G. Norton Jr.
Michael T. Jammen
