Boston Hotel in 1919 ‘Black Sox’ Scandal Bought by Lab Developer
Boston Hotel in 1919 ‘Black Sox’ Scandal Bought by Lab Developer
(Bloomberg) -- A hotel near Fenway Park that featured in the 1919 World Series fixing scandal has been purchased by a developer of laboratory space as a biotech boom drives Boston’s commercial real estate market.
IQHQ Inc., a life sciences real estate development company, has completed its acquisition of the Buckminster, a historic property in Kenmore Square that has been shuttered since the pandemic hit in March 2020.
The hotel, where the infamous “Black Sox” plot to rig the 1919 World Series was allegedly hatched, is near IQHQ’s $1 billion Fenway Center project.
Boston, the epicenter of a biotech explosion, faces a shortage of lab space that is pushing developers to convert warehouses, offices and hotels because that’s faster and less expensive than building from scratch, said Aaron Jodka, a Boston-based research director for Colliers.
In the Boston area, the vacancy rate for lab space fell below 1% in the third quarter, the lowest in data from Colliers dating back to 1995.
“If you have a 1% vacancy rate, you have a space crisis -- time to market is the name of the game,” Jodka said.
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