Looking Back, Looking Forward
I would not have predicted this is where the country would be one year later. It’s been a long winter, but hope springs eternal. Looking forward to seeing everyone on the other side.
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The Retail Bright Spot
If nothing else, COVID has shown us just how important our local retail economy is. We’re stuck at home, our normal routines have shifted, including where our time and dollars are spent.
read moreNovember Is the New December
The pandemic has created more online consumers – with shoppers who may not have been as familiar or as frequent with online shopping, it has shifted transactions to take place online. A trend that has been happening for years, but has increased dramatically in these last 9 months.
read moreCOVID Testing
A couple of weeks ago, Jesse wrote about non-retail active uses, stressing that we should all be thinking about what non-retail active uses might populate the ground floors of buildings if retail is not viable, “uses that add vibrancy to our cities and create inclusive, diverse, and equitable places.” One category on that list is medical…
read moreCOVID Communications
We’ve always taken a grassroots approach to tenant recruitment that included pop-ins and calls to our favorite local businesses. With COVID-19, that has all changed…
read moreUpdate #16: A Hole Lot To Think About
We have embraced the reality that there is no singular solution or approach we can successfully deploy to rebuild our retail leasing, real estate advisory, and marketing practices.
read moreHere’s the Poop: The Coming Wave
“Everybody pees and poops, every day. We analyze viruses, bacteria, and chemical metabolites that are excreted in urine and stool and collected in sewers. This information is a readout of our health and wellbeing as a community. We map this data, empowering communities to tackle public health proactively.”
read moreCurbside Questions Redux
I wrote about curbside management on our blog back in May, when contactless curbside pickup was comparatively new. But in hindsight this missed a critical curbside use that’s grown significantly during the past 8 months: curbside pickup for non-food retailers.
read moreUpdate #15: If Not Retail, What?
Here in Boston and throughout much of the country, we have an oversupply of retail space. We therefore need to completely readjust our thinking about ground floor leasing and programming.
read moreRestaurants Need An Extended Patio Season
The weather driven economic crisis slowly approaching is the reality that our beloved New England autumnal weather is also likely to mark the end of outdoor dining season. And with it the lifeline that thousands of restaurants across Boston have been holding on to in order survive just one more shift, one more week, one more month since May.
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