“There has never been a better time in the last 40 years to develop a multifamily project in Boston,’’ said George Fantini, chairman of the mortgage banking firm Fantini & Gorga. “The capital markets are awash in interest for this type of development.’’
Fantini said investor returns on rental housing projects in Boston are now promising about 5.5 percent, compared with between 3 and 4.5 percent over the past several decades.
The five proposed projects on deck tonight before Boston officials include: a 404-unit apartment tower on Stuart Street; a 318-unit high-rise at Copley Place in the Back Bay; 240 units along the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway in Chinatown; a 236-unit tower in the Seaport District; and another 210 apartments on Boylston Street in the Fenway. The Copley project, by Simon Property Group of Indianapolis, is the only one that is exclusively condominiums, although the developer has previously suggested it could become apartments.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino and other city officials said they are receiving proposals for new housing projects every day. “I have investors coming to me and saying, ‘What opportunities do you have? How can we be involved?’ ’’ Menino said. “I haven’t seen that in a while.’’
Many of the projects will result in new and updated public spaces, and several stores and restaurants, adding vibrancy to Boston streets. Some face a degree of neighborhood opposition - the Copley project, for example, has drawn concerns about traffic and shadows cast on nearby Copley Square, among other issues.
But what they all illustrate is that their developers - and the lenders and equity investors behind them - see an unusual opportunity for profit in an otherwise dour commercial real estate market.
