The idea of micro-apartments for Boston has long been predicated on the willingness of young tech pros to, well, live in micro-apartments, pods of a few hundred square feet of severely functional living space. Should not enough young tech pros opt for these micro-apartments (which, by and large, remain on the drawing board), then that's it for the idea in Boston. Globe columnist Scott Kirsner offers some good news, then, for the developers of micro-apartments: "A year ago, it was rare for growing tech companies to land downtown, except for a few streets close to South Station. But now, the Thinking Cup Coffee Shop facing Boston Common is becoming the caffeination depot of choice, and a regular after-work gathering of mobile software developers has relocated to Quincy Market from Porter Square."
It's not entirely clear whether these new commercial arrivals will necessarily translate into new residential arrivals in downtown Boston, and therefore into micro-apartment tenants. Most are coming from Cambridge, as Kirsner notes, so, barring a real breakdown in the T (always a possibility), it's conceivable they keep their same homes and simply commute. And why not? We now know that micro-apartments in downtown Boston will likely go for the same rents as much larger abodes and will ask tenants to trade privacy for that functionality (i.e., there would be a lot of shared common space in individual buildings). It's going to take a lot of young tech professionals, and others, to move these micro-apartments. The current migration from Cambridge would have to be just the start.
· Increasingly, Tech Firms Are Crossing River [Globe]
· Hub's Tech Sector Needs Bodies—Good News for Real Estate [Curbed Boston]
· Like You, Boston Micro-Apartments Can't Escape the Rent [Curbed Boston]
· Here's How Much Micro-Apartments in Southie Could Go For [Curbed Boston]