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MEMBER EVENTS

THURSDAY, MARCH 7

Women in Construction Week Meeting

11:30 AM

Prince Pizza, Saugus MA

Please join us for a lunch and learn with special guest speaker, Angie Simon. Simon served as the first female SMACNA President and current Advisor to the Board of Western Allied Mechanical.  

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27

AGC MA & BTEA's Executive Meeting

3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Top Golf, Canton MA

Please join BTEA Northeast and the AGC MA Labor Relations Division for an executive networking event aimed at increasing connections and collaboration across our executive and management teams.  

EDUCATION

New Instructor Spotlight

Eric Anderton is the author of best-selling book, Construction Genius. He is a trusted leadership advisor, executive mentor and expert meeting facilitator. Since 2004 he has helped his clients increase profitability by clarifying their business purpose, building strategic plans, developing their best people, systematically innovating through obstacles, and executing their most important priorities.

Please join us for his courses listed below.

THURSDAY, MARCH 7

Strategic Selling

8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Quincy Marriott

Register Here

THURSDAY, MARCH 7

How to Achieve High Performance

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Quincy Marriott

Register Here

Make sure to check out our full list of courses for the Winter & Spring Session and reserve your spot today: 2024 Education Registration

NEWS

Cutler Takes Role in Healy Administration

Gov. Healey named state Rep. Josh Cutler to a newly created post in the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. As undersecretary of apprenticeship, work-based learning and policy, Cutler will oversee the secretariat's Division of Apprentice Standards.  Read More

Boston Landlords Are Ready to Fight the City on Building Values

Landlords in downtown Boston are preparing to challenge property tax assessments as the office-market experiences a post-pandemic decline in value. Many landlords are expecting to apply for property-tax abatements in significant numbers. The deadline to apply for abatement is February 1st. Read More

Alternative Assets Gaining Ground Among Investors as Old Standards Like Retail and Office Fade

As office buildings see their value decline, alternative real estate assets, including niche property types like self-storage, student housing and medical office buildings are seeing increased investment. During the 3rd quarter, investment in alternative property types spiked to $18.3B, making up 15% of total investment dollars. Capital markets experts say that the share of investment in alternative assets is expected to grow. Read More

Construction Labor Market Forecast

In December, the construction industry added 17,000 net jobs, part of what was a stronger-than-expected jobs report released late last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between December 2022 and December 2023, industry employment grew 2.5%, to 197,000 new jobs. Still, the unemployment rate in construction continues to outpace the national unemployment rate, at 4.4% in December compared to 3.7%. Read More

Proposals & Projects We're Watching

BPDA OKs Allston Labs: The Boston Planning and Development Agency’s board approved two separate life sciences laboratory proposals in Allston from IQHQ Inc. and King Street Properties. Read More

Back Bay Hotel to Dorm Conversion Approved: The two-phase 1.5M SF plan calls for building 3,300 mixed-income apartments, replacing the 1,016 public housing units on the site. The project would also include 33K SF of ground-floor retail created for small, local businesses, with 25% of the space being offered at below-market leases. Read More

100+ Room Hotel Proposed in Revere: Plans are under review for a 5-story hotel at 185 Squire Road in Revere. The hotel would include 104 rooms with 1,800 square feet of restaurant space on the ground floor. Read More

LEGISLATION

Healey's 'Temporary' No-New-Taxes Pledge

Healey said she would be filing legislation to allow cities and towns to raise existing lodging and meals taxes, and assess a new 5% surcharge on the value of motor vehicles that would be added to the existing motor vehicle excise tax. No details are currently available, but it appears this is part of the Governors plan to fund the ailing MBTA. Read More

Boston Emissions Ordinance Turns Up Heat on Landlords

Boston’s groundbreaking law cutting large buildings’ greenhouse gas emissions is set to gain a set of teeth, and city regulators are scrambling to set up the final enforcement rules. Hospitals, universities, museums and office landlords all have warned of potential hardships complying with the Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO), which sets carbon dioxide emissions reduction goals and threatens potential fines beginning in 2025. Read More

Mayor Wu Argues for BPDA Home Rule Petition to Legislative Committee

In testimony before the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business, Mayor Wu urged lawmakers to approve a home rule petition to legally restructure the BPDA as part of an effort to streamline and promote transparency of the city’s development processes. Wu’s petition, passed by the City Council last March, requires approval from both legislative branches and the Governor in order to dissolve two legal entities the city’s powerful development agency operates under, the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Economic Development and Industrial Corp. of Boston. It would consolidate the bodies into one quasi-governmental entity called the BPDA, and calls for a change of the agency’s stated mission from “urban renewal” and “eradicating blight,” to increasing “resilience, affordability, and equity” in development. Read More

Healey Administration Releases 2025 Budget

The Healey-Driscoll administration released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget proposal. The $58.13 billion spending plan includes critical investments in childcare, education, and transportation; and $1.3 billion in spending supported by income surtax revenues. The Governor’s budget increases funding over the FY 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) by $2.1 billion (3.7 percent); a rate of growth that reflects the modest revenue expectations for the upcoming fiscal year. The Governor’s budget comes three weeks after the Healey administration announced a $1 billion tax revenue shortfall for FY 2024, which they propose to solve for using a combination of unanticipated non-tax revenues ($625 million) and mid-year spending cuts ($375 million net). Read More

FAST FACTS

• Construction job openings rose in November to 459,000, a 10.3% increase from the month prior, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released in January
• Tax credit is available for paying employees during family and medical leave time. If an employer pays 100% of the worker's wages, they get 25% of the wages paid as a tax credit. 
• Total construction starts surged 20% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.12 trillion after three months of falling activity. 
• The state’s jobless rate rose to 3.2 percent last month from 2.9 percent in November. The increase came as the number of residents looking for a job expanded.
• Existing-home sales slid 19% in 2023 from the prior year to 4.09 million, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. That total was lower than during the subprime crisis and the lowest full-year level since 1995. 

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