When I read this my immediate reaction is this is part of Boston's effort to blunt the impact of the potential incoming commercial real estate crash, which could damage many Boston business as well as Boston's commercial tax base.
I was surprised not to see that mentioned at all in the announcement. Is it unrelated? Is the announcement political spin to encourage those who might otherwise be against bailing out commercial real estate property owners to support it? Am I just wrong and this has nothing to do with the CRE crisis?
I don't think it's related to any crisis in CRE. Rather it's related to an ongoing crisis in housing. Boston is short 30 thousand housing units.
Yes CRE vacancy is high in Boston, but it's still far from being a CRE crisis. The share of biotech and healthcare space is so high within Boston CRE that vacancy rate aren't nearly as bad as in other cities. And lab conversions are increasingly commonplace, so it's not like a residential conversion program was necessary to save CRE.
I was surprised not to see that mentioned at all in the announcement. Is it unrelated? Is the announcement political spin to encourage those who might otherwise be against bailing out commercial real estate property owners to support it? Am I just wrong and this has nothing to do with the CRE crisis?