BOSTON—Boston's commercial markets haveconcluded a first quarter that DTZ says was “quieton paper,” but much busier in reality, with class B rents jumpingin the city and movement of activity from Cambridge to Lechmere.And suburban Lexington become a hotspot as bio-pharmaceuticalleader Shire grabbed more than 200,000 square feet of space as itbecame available. These development's are noted in DTZ'sfirst-quarter MarketWatch research report, and accompanying pressrelease:

As we usually see in the first quarter it was quiet onpaper. However, there is always a story behind thenumbers. And this quarter brought a few trends we'll bewatching throughout the year.

In Boston, the story of thequarter was the jump in class B rents—up more than 10% inthe Financial District just in the past 90 days, DTZ says. Also, in thepast year, Midtown and the Financial District (neighborhoods thatadjoin the up-and-coming Downtown Crossing) have seen class B rentsjump 16.4% and 56.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, tighteningconditions in the Kendall Square Cambridge have convinced tenantsto consider Lechmere.