We’re kicking off a new blog series today called “Love Where You Work,” where our team will find and travel to the coolest workplaces and commercial office buildings to give you a virtual tour of the space from the perspective of a tenant.
Our first stop: The Innovation and Design Building, fondly referred to as the IDB here in Boston.
The IDB is owned and managed by Jamestown which you might recognize for it’s other cool spaces around the country, including Ponce City Market in Atlanta, and Chelsea Market in NYC, which Jamestown recently sold to Google, and this is just to name a few. The IDB is a 1.4 million square foot mixed-use complex that offers businesses white box space that features expansive floor planes, high ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling windows.
Now, the IDB boasts some of the most innovative companies in Boston as tenants, here’s just a taste: Reebok, Autodesk, Como Audio, MassChallenge, America’s Test Kitchen, The Boston Beer Company, Continuum, and Conventures, to name a few. As I mentioned in the video, even though the IDB is tucked away on the far side of the Seaport, the campus community-type feel that it’s fostered through onsite amenities and experiences has really contributed to it’s ability to attract such innovative tenants.
It’s no secret that landlords need to offer more than just office space these days, and it all comes down to the demands of businesses that purchase from landlords, because they need more than just office space to attract, recruit, and retain employees. They need amenities, experiences and technology to really wow the modern employee, who we like to refer to as the Connected Tenant.
Quick aside – If you want to see if your office building is set up to attract the Connected Tenant, take our quick Property Grader quiz.
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So let’s take a look at how the IDB differentiates with onsite amenities and experiences.
Transportation and Convenience
While the IDB is somewhat separated from the busier part of the Seaport, they are still near public transportation: the Silver Line and the #7 and #4 bus. But the extras that the IDB offers really extend tenant convenience.
The IDB offers a dedicated shuttle service to and from South and North Stations with continuous loops during peak hours (6 to 10 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m.). The shuttle has free WiFi, GPS tracking, and text message alerts based on your preferred route.
The IDB is also an extremely bike-friendly campus. There are two Hubway bike share stations right out front on Drydock Ave and there are also more than 300 bike racks inside the building and 20 bike racks within onsite shipping containers that line the left hand side of the building. There are 16 showers on the first floor for folks that work up a sweat, as well as three bike repair stations and a 20% discount toMyBikeBicycle Repair Benefits.
The IDB has an industrial feel and is in a traditionally industrial neighborhood, smack dab in between a number of dry docks and the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal. Fittingly enough, the IDB campus has made brilliant use of the familiarly industrial shipping container, outfitting a number of their onsite retailers and restaurants into these small, portable kiosks at the edge of the property. One last convenience fits perfectly into a shipping container: Cut-Splice, a three-seat salon with well-known stylists.
A Variety of Food Options
The IDB has a wide variety of healthy but delicious food options for tenants to choose from in their shipping containers. Everything from artisanal coffee, salads, smoothies, grainbowls, lobster (!) and much more.
Food amenities include: Fare Well, Farmacy Cafe, Munch Mobile, Triangle Coffee, Yankee Lobster, and more to come I’m told…
Premium Retail Experiences
When IDB nabbed Reebok as a tenant, they also scored their brand new retail storefront where people from all over Boston head to shop for new sneakers, workout gear, and athleisure apparel. The Reebok store also has a customization shop where customers can order personalized sneakers in about an hour. It’s a pretty impressive store.
It was great walking around the IDB this morning and getting a sense of the community of professionals that walk in and out of its doors every day. From my short visit, it quickly became clear that employees were happy to be there and the campus offered unique amenities and experiences in an equally unique work environment.
