HUB DIGS COST STATE OVER $66M
MassHousing pays $4.5M for 1 Beacon Street space
The agency tasked with bankrolling affordable housing in Massachusetts has the second highest state rental bill in the city at over $4.5 million a year for office space in the exclusive One Beacon Street tower, a Herald analysis of rents shows.
MassHousing pays a total of $378,828 a month for its 375 employees at the office located just a few blocks from the State House, agency spokesman Paul McMorrow confirmed. The quasistate agency pays about $43 per square foot for office space on the building’s lower floors, he said.
The hefty bill comes as rents are soaring in Boston and another state agency — the Cannabis Control Commission — is looking to move out to cheaper digs in Worcester.
Greg Vasil, head of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, said suburban markets will cost “substantially less” compared to downtown Boston.
“As you go on (routes) 128 or 495, the further away you get the prices will drop,” Vasil said. “Rents in the city have gone absolutely through the roof.”
Government watchdog Mary Connaughton, from the Pioneer Institute, said taxpayers need a break.
“It’s hard to justify state agencies operating in highrent districts, especially with the white-hot Boston real estate market,” Connaughton said. “It’s time the state consider moving out to the ’burbs to try to save some taxpayer dollars.”
MassHousing, McMorrow said, needs office space close to the MBTA. The agency does have a fleet of 18 cars — mostly Toyota Camrys — for use by the staff, as the Herald reported last month. Ten of those Toyotas are take-home cars.
Overall, the state spends $189 million annually on rental agreements — not including MassHousing — with nearly $66 million accounting for leases in Boston alone, according to a database of the bills provided to the Herald from the Office of Leasing and State Office Planning.
MassHousing board member and treasurer Andris J. Silins said any state agency would be wise to look at lowering overhead.
“Of course we should look at lowering rents,” he said. “You always take a look to see if it’s out of control.”
But he also backed One Beacon Street’s coveted access to public transportation. The tower is also home to the UMass Club and is one of the tallest buildings in the city.
The single-most expensive agreement is $7.2 million office space in the heart of the city for the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) at 100 Cambridge St. The office then leases to other state agencies, including the Department of Revenue, the Attorney General’s Office, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the Department of Housing and Community Development.
Out of the 35 state rental agreements that cost over $1 million, 20 of them are in Boston, records show.
Other pricey annual agreements include over $4.3 million at 250 Washington St. for the Department of Public Health and $4.2 million for Trial Court and Office Chief Administration of Justice at Center Plaza.