The company, a privately held education services provider, already employs 650 in East Cambridge, along with thousands of others in 50 countries. Its proposed new building in Cambridge, planned for a former Big Dig staging area across from the Museum of Science, would occupy a 55,000-square-foot parcel, and rise 150 feet.

The new proposed building will obstruct the Zakim Bridge’s view from the XX29 units at the neighboring Regatta Riverview Residences up to the 16th floor.

Education First is asking the state legislature to pass a special law, including density and property purchase options, to facilitate the project, State House News reported. That request and the plan’s details were made public Tuesday during a state senate committee hearing.

Education First would pay $9 million up front for a 99-year lease on the property, and commit to pay property taxes to Cambridge, State House News Service reported. The company eventually would like to purchase the land.

Source: Boston Business Journal

The most active price ranges were ($350,000 to $399,999) and ($600,000 to $699,999) with 8 and 4 transactions, respectively.  The volume for this month is slightly down from Janaury which will leave us wondering how March will fair as we approach the busy Spring season! 

Please visit my agent home page at:  http://www.bostonrealestate.com/agents/BrettNeumeister or email me with any questions or comments at brett@bushari.com

Last week ended with a total of 8 condominiums being sold with a total market value of $3,955,900 changing hands between buyers and sellers.  The lowest sale was $357,000 at 850 Mass. Ave., #7  and the highest sale was $1,035,000 at 993 Memorial Drive, #603.  The average sales price was $494,488 which was 94% lower than the average original price of $537,188 with an average days on market of 66 days.

The most active price range was ($350,000 to $399,999) with 5 transactions far outpacing other price ranges which had just 1 each for the following sale prices:  $435,000, $630,000 & $1,035,000.

Please stay tuned for the sales data for this week which will be posted next Monday.  We could be on pace for another strong second month in Cambridge condo sales for 2011!

Please visit my agent home page at:  http://www.bostonrealestate.com/agents/BrettNeumeister or email me with any questions or comments at brett@bushari.com

The most active price ranges were ($350,000 to $399,999) and ($500,000 to $599,000) with six transactions for each range.  The next most active price ranges were ($400,000 to $449,000) and ($300,000 to $349,000) with five and four transactions, respectively.

I noticed an interesting observation in the $1,000,000 to $1,499,000 range where a condo was sold above it’s original listing price.  The property is located at 130 Mount Auburn Street, #409 which sold at $1,301,500 versus its original listing price of $1,250,000. . .a 4% premium over asking!  Let’s see if the momentum can continue into February!

Please visit my agent home page at:  http://www.bostonrealestate.com/agents/BrettNeumeister or email me with any questions or comments at brett@bushari.com

Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, said it will work with HYM Investment Group, LLC, of Boston and Atlas Capital Group in New York to develop the 44-acre site, a former Pan Am rail yard across the Charles River from Massachusetts General Hospital, a few blocks from Kendall Square.

Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds — a joint venture between Canyon Capital Realty Advisors and a subsidy of Magic John Enterprises — was created in 2001 to redevelop real estate in densely populated urban areas.

“We are thrilled to be back in the Boston area, and to breathe new life into a large, strategically located piece of land that has been under-utilized for too long,” said Canyon Managing Partner Bobby Turner. He said the project “has the potential to create a new focal point for the neighborhood and generate thousands of construction and permanent jobs for local residents.”

Work on NorthPoint came to a halt in 2005 amid financial problems. It was originally supposed to feature about 2,700 residential units, more than 2 million feet of commercial and office space, and 150,000 square feet for retail businesses.

Starting tomorrow, the bridge will close to inbound traffic for at least a month, and transportation officials are expecting major headaches, despite their best efforts to urge commuters to plan alternate routes or switch to public transit. Traffic will be detoured through East Cambridge and Charlestown; even the duck boats will be affected, unable to ply the Charles because the channel below the bridge will also be closed.

The Craigie project — which next year will again require closing of the inbound lanes for about two months — will be, for commuters as well as engineers, the most complicated and disruptive stage yet in an eight-year, $400 million-plus effort by the state to repair six long-neglected Charles River crossings. The Boston University Bridge has been under construction for more than a year; the Longfellow, River Street, Western Avenue, and Larz Anderson Memorial bridges are next.

The Craigie, which at its widest point has three lanes in each direction, runs past the Museum of Science, carrying Route 28 (Monsignor O’Brien Highway) between Cambridge’s Land Boulevard and Boston’s Leverett Circle.

Planners have spent months debating which lanes to close and when, where to detour traffic, and how to monitor the myriad busy roads and intersections that will feel ripple effects of the bridge’s closure.

A series of signs already warn drivers of the impending closure and bridge work. On Monday, the first workday affected by the inbound traffic ban, police details will be posted at 40 locations to direct traffic in the vicinity of the bridge.

Officials from the State Police, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and the parking and traffic departments of Cambridge and Somerville will join their Boston counterparts in an unusual collaboration, monitoring scores of traffic cameras in a seventh-floor control room at Boston’s City Hall. There they will watch for gridlocked intersections, determine whether traffic lights need to be retimed, and make other adjustments as needed.

The professors filed suit in April 2009, claiming the developer, a joint venture of Equity Residential and Extell Development Corp., did not follow through on an agreement under which the professors would purchase units the development, called Third Square., in Cambridge’s Kendall Square neighborhood. The professors sought the units because it was close to their professional and academic obligations, according to court documents.

A Superior Court judge determined that the purchase and sales agreements are binding on the defendants and enforceable, according to a ruling issued this week.

In her decission, Judge Frances A. McIntyre ordered the developer to provide the plaintiffs’ attorney completed condominum documents within 10 days. Further, after the documents are formalized, the developer must record the condominum documents and schedule closings within a two-week window, per the judge’s decision.

“There are no money damages that will redress and remedy the loss these plaintiffs suffered when the defendant breached its contract with each of them,” McIntyre wrote. “No other residence or any amount of money damages will give them the benefit of the bargain they negotiated with the defendant.”

The development was originally approved for 527 units in two buildings, the so-called North and South developments. The North building contains rental units and was not part of the suit.

According to prior BBJ reports, the plaintiffs claimed last year that the developer was in discussion with the city of Cambridge to rent the South building as apartments. A Superior Court judge issued an injunction last June, prohibiting the developer from renting or leasing the units it pledged to sell.

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Beautiful, corner unit overlooking the Zakim Bridge! Luxury two bedroom,two full bath unit. This complex offers many amenities, including; swimming pool, exercise room, business center, club room, theater, 24/7 concierge and valet parking. Great deal at this price and ready to be occupied. Close to public transportation, major highway and Boston!

In a decision today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court backed the Legislature’s 2007 tidelands bill to issue exemptions from certain waterfront licensing regulations.

The state Department of Environmental Protection had exempted most filled tidelands from such statutes, but the SJC’s 2007 ruling found that only the Legislature could issue such exemptions. A group of Cambridge residents had challenged the validity of the 2007 tidelands bill. Today’s SJC decision puts that challenge to rest.

“Although we are not unsympathetic to the plaintiff’s view, we ultimately agree with the defendants that the act does not extinguish and relinquish public trust rights in landlocked tidelands,” the decision reads.

Source: Banker and Trademan

“The altered financial landscape of the university, and of the wider world, necessitates a shift away from rapid development in Allston, and thus requires a simultaneous commitment to a program of active stewardship of Harvard properties,” Faust wrote.

Harvard lost 27.3 percent of its endowment between June 30, 2008, and June 30 of this year, dropping from $36 billion to $26 billion over that one-year period. As a result, the university has been going through a series of cost-cutting measures, including a deep round of layoffs.

Faust said Harvard officials this week reviewed the options for the Allston complex that have been developed over the past 10 months, the cost projections and the short-term alternatives for accommodating scientific programs elsewhere in both Boston and Cambridge.

“We concluded that the most prudent course is to delay the next phase of construction while continuing a rigorous analysis of strategies for resumed activity, including co-development,” she wrote.

Faust noted that she had warned of the Allston project delay in a letter she wrote to the university last February, characterizing Thursday’s news as “anticipated.”

To date, the first phase of the Allston project has been completed, with the foundation of the Allston Science Complex constructed to ground level, 8,000 tons of structural steel put in place, along with several spaces for laboratory support and power generation. In addition, she said, the street-level concrete deck is nearing completion.

Faust said the delay would not slow Harvard’s momentum in the life sciences, adding that the university makes strategic investments in research facilities in both Boston and Cambridge and continues to pursue research, recruit life sciences faculty and “sharpen” the region’s competitiveness in attracting federal funds.

In her letter, Faust reassured Allston residents that Harvard would keep its obligations to its neighbors in mind, and said the university’s presence in Allston moving forward would manifest in three phases: property stewardship and community engagement; campus planning and greening; and campus development.

In terms of property stewardship, Faust said, Harvard will focus on improvements, aggressive leasing of vacant or partially vacant Harvard properties, and community engagement.