Archstone Set to Expand Boston Holdings

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BOSTON-Archstone Smith is out to capture the luxury apartment market in Boston. The Englewood, CO apartment developer and owner has held a portfolio of suburban Boston assets for years but it wasn’t until November, when the company opened Archstone Boston Common, that it had a presence in the city’s urban core. Now, the firm has its eyes on downtown Boston where luxury units are rare.

“We’re very comfortable with competing in this market in the luxury class,” says Karl Trieschman, head of the Boston development group for Archstone-Smith. So comfortable, in fact, says Trieschman, that the company is eyeing other urban locations for its high-end apartment ventures.

The firm already has one project, a 762-unit apartment community at North Point in East Cambridge, in development and holds title to an adjacent permitted parcel that will allow it to build another 340 units nearby. Other ventures may soon follow, Trieschman says.

“We are evaluating several urban projects and we’re looking to the suburbs selectively,” he says, noting that Archstone has “a very long pedigree of urban properties” in other cities, including New York City and Chicago.

Trieschman is cautious about identifying exactly what Boston neighborhoods Archstone is eyeing for its luxury units, although he does admit the company has talked with developers in the Seaport District and continues to have “an interest in that area provided the right opportunity arises.”

Archstone’s interest in capturing the city’s luxury market is apparently paying off already. Its 28-story, 420-unit multimillion-dollar Archstone Boston Common at 660 Washington St. was already 40% leased weeks before its March 14 grand opening. Retailers are also clamoring to lease up the 6,000 sf of ground-level space in the building, he notes.