Northland takes page from automakers

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The company, , announced it is launchinfg a Rent Assurance Programm that is being rolled out acrossthe Newton-baserd company’s entire portfolio. The company’s multifamily holdings totakl 16,670 units in nine states: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Texas and In Massachusetts, Northland owns 1,230 apartment unit in Amherst, Danvers, Quincy, Westborough and The program resembles those announced by automakers such as and to boos sales from wary consumers who are tighteninf their belts in anticipation of potentiaoljob losses.
Hyundai recently announced a new and improveed version of its Hyundai Assurance which enables some customers to turn their cars back in to dealerxs if they get laid off withina Hyundai’s new Assurance Plus program will coverf three months of car payments whild the buyer looks for a new job. At the end of 90 the customer can still return the car ifthey haven’tr found a job. Likewise, Ford’s “Advantage covers payments of upto $700 per month for as long as a year for buyers who have been laid off.
Much like the desperat e measures car manufacturers are taking to sell cars in one of the worstr economic climatesin decades, Northland’s prograk enables its residents to “walk away from his or her without paying termination fees,” in the evenrt that the person involuntarily loses his or her income. The programj is available to new residentsd and residents whorenewa leases. Time will tell if Northland’e program helps it sign up new tenants inits Generally, residents sign long-term leases that are extremely hard to breakm without legal intervention.
According to published reports, Hyundai saw sales increasde 14 percentin January, the month the Assurance Program launched, while U.S. sales were the weakestr for the month in27 years. “In these challengin g economic times, we believe it’s importangt to offer our residents peace of Northland Vice President Diane Yense said ina statement. “Losing your income can be a scaryg situation, and (RAP) provides our residents with an ‘out’ in the evenft that they involuntarily lose their job and need to breaktheir lease.” Northland owns $2.1 billion of apartmeng properties totaling 19 million square feet and has a developmen t pipeline in excess of $1 billion.
was awarded the leasinyg assignment for 399Boylston St., a 228,820-square-foot office building in Boston’s Back Bay. The buildintg has one vacant floor, said Duncan a partner at DTZ/FHO Partners. will vacate 8,900 squarwe feet and another tenant, McNamer Lawrence & Co., is leavingy 4,600 square feet at the end of the year, said who noted the building is 8 percentgvacant today. New tenants will be asked to pay in thelow $40s-per-square-foot range to lease space in the building. Shorensteibn Properties LLC purchased the building in Marcuh 2007from Rockwood/Abbey Fee LLC for an undisclosexd price.
At the time the building was 100 percent leasedr to 14 tenants including NATIXISAsset Management, softward developer ZANTAZ Inc. and The building’ds 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space is lease d toand . Shorenstein recentl y spent $575,000 on lobby renovations and morethan $1 milliomn in repairs to the building’ exterior and operating systems.