244 Marlborough Street, Boston, MA

Boston Property Ventures (BPV) received the opportunity to develop a 7,000 square foot Victorian brownstone home on highly sought after Marlborough Street in Boston’s Back Bay. This opportunity was an off-the-market sale found through a personal relationship with the seller. The previous owner of this single-family home had passed away, leaving the home as an estate sale. The relatively inefficient nature of the sales process allowed BPV to acquire the property at an advantageous price. The initial purchase was made with 75% debt, 25% equity.

BPV was able to take this old Victorian building and modernize it into two units: a bottom-level triplex and top-level duplex. The Back Bay Architectural Commission imposed a few constraints on the project, including declining to allow BPV to add a floor to the building. However, BPV was able to work with the Commission to optimize space utilization. BPV designed a staircase that was complex and intricate to build, but which connected all floors of the bottom triplex in a unique and elegant way. BPV’s forward thinking experts were able to apply recent building code changes in order to reallocate internal space, allowing for a better layout with more efficient space usage. BPV’s personal relationships with the seller, local architects, the Back Bay Architectural Commission, and local contractors contributed to the successful completion of this project. The finished project sold after 18 months for $11.3 million.