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Boston's sagging crane numbers

Crane at Boylston and Massachusetts Avenue

Crane for the Samuels mixed-use complex going up at Boylston and Mass. Ave.

Via Scott Van Voorhis comes the news that the number of big cranes perched atop construction sites in Boston has dropped from an average of 12 a couple years ago to just 9 in the first quarter of 2022.

The stats come from Rider Levett Bucknall, a global construction and development consulting firm that keeps track of the number of construction cranes poking up from skylines across the US and Canada (somebody has to). The company, however, cautions it's too early to take anything away from that number:

Despite the ongoing challenges of materials supply chains and labor shortages, the market remains very active with several large-scale projects in progress as well as a healthy pipeline of projects in the planning stage. Development in the Seaport, Fenway, and Financial Districts continues to remain strong with life sciences, multi-family, and mixed-use projects.

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Comments

When the Life Sciences bubble breaks there is going to be a lot of empty space in Boston.

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The interesting thing about these buildings is that they are changeable when they need to be repurposed or built out differently.

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Off the top of my head, these might be the nine current cranes counted:

2 cranes at the site pictured in the article (Mass Ave. @ Hynes)
BU "stack of books"
566 Columbus, South End
Northeastern compsci building, also on Columbus
Raffles tower
1 Congress
Winthrop Square
South Station tower

Cranes were recently removed as buildings topped off in Kenmore Square, Allston, North Station, Bay Village, and Chinatown, which was at least five more. I think if they had done the crane count a month or two ago it would've been 13-14, above our recent average.

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as long as there isn't an increasing number of sagging cranes.

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