Record Number Of Tenants Looking At Downtown Boston Office: Report

At the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 39th Street, one of New York City’s dozens of Pret A Manger locations is sitting dark and empty, all its shelves bare. A sign on the door says it is temporarily closed through the end of the year while “we navigate these uncertain times,” and provides a QR code for the nearest delivery.

This particular location is just one of many in the city where Pret, as it is known, is being sued for unpaid rent. In a lawsuit filed last August, the owner of the building claims Pret owes nearly $200K in back rent and hasn't relinquished possession of the property. The attorney for the landlord, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., said the lawsuit is still pending.

In at least a half-dozen locations, the British grab-and-go concept, which makes its money on the bustling breakfast and lunch crowd, faces a similar fate, with city landlords claiming they are collectively due months in back rent. But with a moratorium on commercial evictions in place until the end of August and a sluggish leasing market, both sides are at something of a stalemate.

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Over the last year and then some, fathers across the commercial real estate industry formed new family rituals and bonds, struggled being suddenly thrust into the role of a teacher, and even marveled at how involved their own children became with their little offspring amid the coronavirus pandemic.

For Cedric Bobo, the founder of the real estate social impact training program Project Destined, Father’s Day this Sunday has a deeper meaning: He is finally able to forgive his own father.

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In Case You Missed It...

Tallinn, Estonia, 1993. You’re an American visiting the country to explore your family history and maybe start a new life, and by accident you’ve become a financier for local investors, helping them raise credit and write business plans. You find yourself with $100K in cash in a country recently liberated from the Soviets, with a nascent, fragile banking system. What do you do with the money? 

You put it under the bed. Then you start an eastern European real estate empire that in a roundabout way leads you to becoming a UK property lender backed by two of the biggest names in private equity, with £300M to lend to credit-starved developers. 

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Office leasing has changed dramatically in the past decade, and that change was turbocharged by the shifts brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The market has evolved, but has the job of leasing office space changed as dramatically?

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