AMC selling Joy St. HQ
- Thread starter jniehof
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David Metsky
Well-known member
Aw, I'll miss the place even if it was pretty awful for functionality. Lots of character in the old building. But I'm sure they can get/build much better space outside the confines of the city.
I have many good memories from Cabot Auditorium. Alas, the building needed a lot of work to bring it up proper speed.
Still, the new place will lack the personality of Joy Street.
Brian
Still, the new place will lack the personality of Joy Street.
Brian
peakbagger
In Rembrance , July 2024
I expect members are waiting to donate to a new space. I expect the monies collected for the Crystal Cascades hut could go to this project.
Mark
Member
We may have some time to say goodbye to the old location. According to an AMC FAQ:
peakbagger
In Rembrance , July 2024
I have managed a couple of smaller office moves in the past. One year is not a long time unless they already have a property in mind and ready to sign a P&S. Generally with commercial properties, there has to be significant modifications to the buildings they are going to buy (or lease if they want to free up some short term cash at the expense of future lease payments). The commercial market is quite busy inside the 495 corridor. Architects have to get involved, buy in from the client including the staff has to be obtained and then contractors need to do their stuff. The alternative of just moving everything to a raw space and doing the upgrades after the fact while the space is staffed is more expensive and quite disruptive. Assuming they have at least one large public space (theatre/auditorium) a library/archives and private offices for management this could be a 6 to 9 month effort assuming they have the cash in hand. If fundraising is needed that adds in more time. I would expect that rather than fund raise they would raid a reserve or take a short term loan.
I am assuming a vacant spec type commercial building, if its a vacant historical property being adapted to a new use, add 30 to 50% minimum to the timeline. It will be interesting to see if they insist on a location on the actual subway system or if they are willing to go with a location served by commuter rail. The little I know of the T system is that access to the core of the system is lot easier than an outlying train station. Individuals living on the "wrong" side of town may be resistant to voluntarily adding a substantial increase in time to their commute. Of course they could go the GE route and just ignore the staff and put it where the board of directors wants it to be and use the move to shake out staff.
I am assuming a vacant spec type commercial building, if its a vacant historical property being adapted to a new use, add 30 to 50% minimum to the timeline. It will be interesting to see if they insist on a location on the actual subway system or if they are willing to go with a location served by commuter rail. The little I know of the T system is that access to the core of the system is lot easier than an outlying train station. Individuals living on the "wrong" side of town may be resistant to voluntarily adding a substantial increase in time to their commute. Of course they could go the GE route and just ignore the staff and put it where the board of directors wants it to be and use the move to shake out staff.
I did find it odd that one of the listed reasons for the move was improvements such as public transit access. Ain't going to get better than a five minute walk from Park Street!
peakbagger
In Rembrance , July 2024
Given some past major decisions by the club, there are probably a couple of not necessarily related reasons for selling the asset. There are the public reasons sanitized and packaged to the public and membership and then there is an internal set of reasons known by only a few in the upper management of the organization. Past real estate transactions have had a taint of "the old boy network" and I expect this one could also have some similar aspects.
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David Metsky
Well-known member
I think the fact that the building is in need of huge repairs and redesign to meet the needs of the club is reason enough. For those of us who've worked there for years we'll miss the place but there facilities are horribly out of date.
Lost Dad
Member
On the plus side, a LOT better than some scuttlebutt I was hearing (like, 495-corridor scuttlebutt).
On the down side, of transit-accessible locations, they managed to find one of the worst walks from the T to the office possible.
On the down side, of transit-accessible locations, they managed to find one of the worst walks from the T to the office possible.
TEO
Well-known member
It's 0.6 miles from North Station (Green Line & Commuter Rail) and 0.5 miles from Community College (Orange Line). The former route includes walking through two parks. Hardly the worst walk.
$13 million is not cheap, but that's about two million less than what they're selling the Joy Street property for, and on top of that, they'll have rental income at the new place. Furthermore, to state the obvious, metro Boston real estate is not cheap.
Raven
Well-known member
I've always had the opinion that the headquarters should be somewhere in the mountains in which the AMC serves. I understand the benefits of being in Boston as a large entity but I also understand the need to remain close to that which you serve. I would have loved to see AMC use this opportunity to place their headquarters closer to the mountains. Either way, I haven't been in Joy St in over 15 years and it looked less than ideal then so no surprise they wanted a new space.
