The sand is running out on 2011, so here be the top 10 real estate stories that made the year a memorable one in the Hub. More gong-rattling Curbed Awards throughout this sleepy week!
10) Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen rocked our little world in October by putting their Back Bay penthouse back on the sales market. Even with a $400K price-chop, it awaits a buyer.
__
9) Mayor Menino bambino, the Hubway bike-share program, announced a move across the Charles post-winter. Somerville and Cambridge, alert your real estate appraisers.
__
8) Occupy Everything! Allston, Harvard, Dewey Square, Northeastern, Dorchester, the mayor's office (which is exactly what happened right before Thanksgiving).
__
7) Michael McLaughlin, late of the Chelsea Housing Authority, was not only the highest-paid affordable-housing chief in America (while keeping rock star hours) but also a horrible boss.
__
6) What Great Recession? Downtown Boston's luxury condo market had a pretty decent 2011.
__
5) Plans were hatched to create hundreds of Manhattan apartments in South Boston and probably elsewhere around the Hub. The micro-apartment, friends, is here as an idea. Will it stay as a reality?
__
4) East Boston was positioned to become the city's next Innovation District, with techies arriving by the hundreds—by ferry!—to change its streetscape and social fabric like they did in Southie.
__
3) We learned about plans to bring 50 outlet stores to 45 acres on the banks of the Mystic in Somerville, just off a slated Orange Line stop.
__
2) What will become Boston's tallest condo tower—47 stories atop Copley Place in Back Bay, including 115,000 more square feet of retail—was approved in late November despite vociferous opposition. The Menino administration and the developer tossed opponents a juicy bone shortly thereafter in the form of more affordable housing at the tower.
__
1) New apartments. Everywhere. Condos and rentals. And yet housing costs will stay high. Happy new year.