Sold: 1 open-air parking space in the Back Bay for $250,000
A home for a car may cost a small fortune in Boston
By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | November 27, 2006
As parking spaces go, it's nice enough. While it's outdoors, the smooth brick paving is immaculate.
But is it worth $250,000?
That's what an anonymous buyer paid in April for a prized spot tucked in the alley behind 31-33 Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay -- breaking the city's record price for a parking space and underscoring the difficulty residents have scoring a spot downtown.
Kathleen Cook, owner of Atlantic Associates Real Estate on Boston's waterfront, said she frequently receives calls from people who live in the Back Bay or near the waterfront who want to be put on a contact list for parking spaces that come on the market.
"There are more people moving into the city, and there's a limited amount of spaces," she said.
Boston's housing market is in a downturn, but the average price for a downtown space rose 16 percent this year, to $92,810, according to Listing Information Network. That was double the 2001 average.
As skyrocketing construction and land costs drive up the cost of parking spaces, developers are modifying their construction plans or turning to cutting-edge technology to supply spaces.
Or, they seek ways to reduce residents' need to own a car.
For instance, developers of the NorthPoint project, going up near the Lechmere subway stop in East Cambridge, recently teamed up with Zipcar, which rents cars by the hour, to provide vehicles for residents' use.
LoveJoy Wharf on the North End waterfront will be the first Boston project to install a computerized parking system, which will direct cars along tracks to their spaces.
And The Modern, with 25 units in the South End, will use an electronic system to stack cars, allowing 20 cars to squeeze into space that would otherwise accommodate just 10. David Goldman, co-owner of New Boston Ventures, said he's getting "twice the bang for your dollar."
The price for a single parking space, sold with the unit, starts at $40,000 at The Modern, a mid priced project, and has recently gone as high as $75,000 at The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Towers, around the corner from Washington Street and the former Combat Zone and overlooking Boston Common.
"Washington Street was the street of lost souls," said Ken Tutunjian, sales manager for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Boston. "Now there's valet parking. You can't find anything." In luxury high-rises, he said, parking is "an amenity people won't live without."
At 45 Province, a condo project a stone's throw from Old City Hall, prices range from $700,000 to $5 million. The $175 million project will have three floors of underground parking, and four floors of above ground parking, with condos on top, a design intended to reduce construction costs. Deep underground construction, which requires a slurry technique to support the parking-garage walls, would have been extremely expensive. "So expensive, we probably wouldn't have built the building," said developer Robert Epstein, chief executive of The Abbey Group in Boston.
Boston's parking crisis is fiercest in the Back Bay and on Beacon Hill, where spots put up for sale can spark aggressive bidding as wealthy residents seek a second or even a third space. The market price for purchasing one space for a vehicle in the Brimmer Street Garage on Beacon Hill is about $200,000.
Finard Properties, a Boston developer of boutique condo projects, had to be creative to provide parking for residents of its 16-unit Beacon Hill renovation, The Tudor, in the late 1990s. Owner William Finard said he and son Todd Finard worked out an agreement with a valet service to deliver condo buyers' cars from the underground Boston Common Garage to The Tudor, up the hill on Beacon Street. When residents returned home from shopping or appointments, the valet picked up the car and drove it back to the garage.
Growth downtown is "putting people on the streets all the time -- that's when the city really flourishes," William Finard said. "It means there's a constant demand and parking lots can't close at night. It means you need significant facilities all over the cities. Rather than having good parking in the Financial District, you've got to have them all over the place."
To receive building permits, builders must show there are adequate parking spaces for the project's residents, said Vineet Gupta, director of planning for the Boston Transportation Department. If a developer doesn't have parking in the building, the company must show a nearby garage can accommodate the residents.
As parking costs soar, more downtown residents are doing without a car.
Zipcar said the number of cars it parks in outdoor spaces and garages around Boston has doubled every year since the Cambridge company introduced its service in 2000. (The company would not disclose how many cars it operates in the Boston area.)
Zipcars are strategically parked in neighborhoods for the convenience of customers, who pay an hourly rate to for access to a car whenever they need it. Each customer has a radio-frequency identification card to open the car door; the keys are hidden inside.
"It is cheaper than a rental car, particularly for the short term," said Edward Gonzalez. A trust attorney, Gonzalez walks to work downtown and uses Zipcar for trips to the grocery store, to suburban malls, to the airport to pick up guests, or for overnight trips. He can choose from various cars parked in his apartment building, Longfellow Place, on the western end of Storrow Drive, or in nearby lots. He usually pays $10 an hour.
Zipcar recently reached agreements with developers of NorthPoint and Avenir, a 241-unit building planned for Canal Street, to place vehicles in the projects for residents. Zipcar was a natural choice for NorthPoint, where most of the buyers are young professionals with no children, said Thomas Hamill, senior vice president for developer Jones Lang LaSalle.
Since Avenir is a so-called transit-oriented development, the city limited the project to half a parking space for each unit, said Abby Goldenfarb, project manager for developer Trinity Financial. Because the Orange and Green subway lines are within walking distance at North Station, many Avenir residents won't need cars to get to work. Zipcar "is a great marketing tool," she said.
