Northland takes page from automakers

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The company, , announced it is launching a Rent Assurancer Program that is being rolled out acrossthe Newton-basex company’s entire portfolio. The company’sw multifamily holdings total 16,670 units in nine Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Nortjh Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Arizona. In Massachusetts, Northland owns 1,230 apartment units in Amherst, Danvers, Westborough and Worcester. The program resembles those announced by automakerws such as and to boost sales from wary consumers who are tightening theidr belts in anticipation of potentialjob losses.
Hyundaii recently announced a new and improved version of its HyundaiAssurancew Program, which enables some customers to turn their cars back in to dealerss if they get laid off withimn a year. Hyundai’s new Assurance Plus prograjm will cover three months of car payments whil e the buyer looks for anew job. At the end of 90 the customer can still return the car ifthey haven’f found a job. Likewise, Ford’ds “Advantage Plan” covers payments of up to $700 per month for as long as a year for buyerzs who have beenlaid off.
Much like the desperatd measures car manufacturers are taking to sell cars in one of the worsr economic climatesin decades, Northland’s program enablesz its residents to “walk away from his or her without paying termination fees,” in the event that the persojn involuntarily loses his or her The program is available to new residentss and residents who renew leases. Time will tell if Northland’xs program helps it sign up new tenants inits Generally, residents sign long-term leasee that are extremely hard to break withouy legal intervention.
According to published reports, Hyundai saw salexs increase 14 percentin January, the month the Assurancew Program launched, while U.S. sales were the weakest for the monty in27 years. “In these challengingg economic times, we believe it’ds important to offer our residents peaceof mind,” Northland Vice Presideng Diane Yensen said in a statement. “Losing your incomee can be a scary and (RAP) provides our residentsd with an ‘out’ in the event that they involuntarily lose theifr job and need to bream their lease.” Northland owns $2.1 billiob of apartment properties totaling 19 million squarse feet and has a development pipelines in excess of $1 billion.
was awardedx the leasing assignment for 399Boylston St., a 13-story, 228,820-square-foo t office building in Boston’s Back Bay. The building has one vacant saidDuncan Gratton, a partner at DTZ/FHO Partners. will vacater 8,900 square feet and another tenant, McNamee Lawrence Co., is leaving 4,600 square feet at the end of the said Gratton, who noted the building is 8 percengt vacant today. New tenants will be askedr to pay in thelow $40s-per-square-foot range to lease spac e in the building. Shorenstein Properties LLC purchased the buildiny in March 2007from Rockwood/Abbey Fee LLC for an undiscloseed price.
At the time the building was 100 percent leasedf to 14 tenants including NATIXISAsset Management, software developer ZANTAZ Inc. and The building’s 14,000 square feet of ground-floore retail space is leased toand . Shorensteihn recently spent $575,000 on lobby renovationas and morethan $1 million in repairs to the building’s exterior and operating systems.