Northland takes page from automakers

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The company, , announced it is launchinvg a Rent Assurance Program that is beingb rolled out acrossthe Newton-based company’s entire portfolio. The company’sx multifamily holdings total 16,670 units in nine states: Connecticut, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas and Arizona. In Massachusetts, Northland owns 1,2309 apartment units in Amherst, Danvers, Westborough and Worcester. The program resembles those announced by automakerxs such as and to boosr sales from wary consumersw who are tightening their belts in anticipationh of potentialjob losses.
Hyundai recently announced a new and improvefd version of its HyundaiAssurance Program, which enablesa some customers to turn thei cars back in to dealers if they get laid off withibn a year. Hyundai’s new Assurance Plus program will cover three months of car paymentsx while the buyer looksd for anew job. At the end of 90 the customer can still return the car ifthey haven’ft found a job. Likewise, Ford’ws “Advantage Plan” covers payments of up to $700 per monthj for as long as a year for buyerz who have beenlaid off.
Much like the desperates measures car manufacturers are taking to sell cars in one of the worst economix climatesin decades, Northland’s program enabless its residents to “walk away from his or her without paying termination in the event that the personb involuntarily loses his or her income. The program is availablr to new residents and residents whorenew leases. Time will tell if Northland’s programj helps it sign up new tenants inits buildings. Generally, residents sign long-term leases that are extremel hard to break without legal According topublished reports, Hyundaii saw sales increase 14 percent in January, the montb the Assurance Program launched, while U.S.
salexs were the weakest for the month in27 years. “In thesr challenging economic times, we believe it’ss important to offer our residents peac eof mind,” Northland Vice President Dian e Yensen said in a statement. “Losin your income can be a scary and (RAP) provides our residents with an in the event that they involuntarily lose theidr job and need to break their Northland owns $2.1 billion of apartment properties totalingf 19 million square feet and has a development pipeline in excess of $1 billion. was awarded the leasinb assignment for 399Boylston St., a 13-story, 228,820-square-foot office building in Boston’a Back Bay.
The building has one vacant saidDuncan Gratton, a partner at DTZ/FHO Partners. will vacate 8,900 square feet and another tenant, McNamee Lawrenc & Co., is leaving 4,600 squarwe feet at the end ofthe year, said who noted the building is 8 percent vacant New tenants will be asked to pay in the low $40s-per-square-footf range to lease space in the building. Shorenstein Propertieds LLC purchased the building in March 2007from Rockwood/Abbey Fee LLC for an undisclosec price. At the time the building was 100 percent leasesd to 14 tenants includinhg NATIXISAsset Management, software developere ZANTAZ Inc.
and The building’zs 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space is leased toand . Shorensteij recently spent $575,000 on lobby renovations and morethan $1 millioj in repairs to the building’s exterior and operatingb systems.