Open Houses & Real Estate — The Daily Boston Brief, August 21, 2026

Sat 10:45–12:15 · East Boston

1 Prescott St #206 · $549,900 · 2 bed · 1 bath · 818 sq ft

The cheapest door on the route and the only one with two bedrooms, on the second floor facing Prescott Square Park in Eagle Hill. It comes with a deeded parking space, which at this price is the headline, and the condo fee is $350 a month. Listed by Vasia Kalaras, LAER Realty Partners.

Sat 11–12:30 · South End

88 Wareham St #401 · $699,000 · 1 bed · 1 bath · 651 sq ft

Top floor of a small elevator building in the middle of SoWa, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a private terrace looking out at the brick warehouses. The building has a roof deck with a firepit. The condo fee is $779 a month, which is where the amenities show up. Listed by Cam Chesley, Keller Williams Realty Boston-Metro.

Sat 1–3 · Financial District

80 Broad St #1009 · $759,000 · 1 bed · 1 bath · 596 sq ft

The smallest one on the list and the one that has been most recently worked on — the owners finished the kitchen last year and are moving to a two-bedroom in the same building. Tenth floor, south-facing floor-to-ceiling windows, 24-hour concierge, and a $764 condo fee that covers every utility except electricity. Listed by Doug Gribbel, Compass.

Sat 1:30–3 · East Boston

227 Chelsea St · $1,250,000 · three units · 5 bed · 3 bath · 3,127 sq ft

The route ends where it started, a few blocks up the hill: a whole 1910 three-decker between Maverick Square and Jeffries Point, three floors of bay windows, eat-in kitchens and rear sunrooms. Buy it to rent all three or live in one and let the other two carry the mortgage. The roof deck is the reason to climb the last flight. Listed by Devan James Brevigleiri, Keller Williams Realty Boston-Metro.

Do · Piers Park — eleven acres of waterfront on Marginal Street, and the free skyline view people pay for elsewhere. Sunday is the drier weekend day for it.

Eat · we do not yet have an East Boston eating guide, so here is the honest version instead: the ten tables Boston booked hardest this week, city-wide, ranked off public booking counts rather than anybody’s opinion.

Live here · the median assessed single-family home in East Boston is $651,400 across 906 homes on the FY2026 roll — below the city’s pricier hills and above Dorchester. Two of this weekend’s four open houses are here, at either end of the range.

Previously: Beacon Hill · Charlestown · South End · North End

Procter & Gamble has acquired the 2.4-acre parcel at 232 A St. on Fort Point Channel for $99.3 million, clearing the way for Gillette’s planned $1 billion headquarters, Banker & Tradesman reports. The seller, Breakthrough Properties, is a Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital venture that bought the surface lots from P&G in 2021 for $80 million and won approval in 2024 for a 324,315-square-foot office-and-lab complex. Gillette says it will build under those same approvals, which include 1.5 acres of public open space along the channel and flood protection for the site.

The Supreme Judicial Court sided with Boston on Wednesday in Emerald Necklace Conservancy v. City of Boston, clearing the overhaul of the 77-year-old stadium into a home field for the city’s National Women’s Soccer League club. Article 97 of the state constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to convert parkland to another use, and the court agreed the Franklin Park land was taken by eminent domain as a public park in 1883. But it found the stadium parcel had already been redesignated out of that status: a 1947 act let it be conveyed to the White Fund for purposes not limited to parks, and a 1950 act designated it a school building and yard for the school committee to maintain — both a generation before Article 97 was ratified in 1972. Banker & Tradesman has the opinion.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell agreed not to block the all-stock merger of apartment giants AvalonBay and Equity Residential, which closed Monday as Vivmark Residential, in exchange for the sale of 1 and 10 Emerson Place. Her office found the two owned 16 high- and mid-rise buildings within a mile and a half of the State House and more than 50 complexes across the metro area. “When real estate companies consolidate market share, it can lead to higher prices, lower quality amenities, and worse lease terms for renters,” Campbell said. The towers, per Banker & Tradesman, were the first two put up in the wholesale leveling of the old West End in the late 1950s.

Isaiah Rashad with Alemeda · Tonight · Citizens House of Blues, Fenway

Lansdowne Street on a night the Sox are home too. Leave the extra twenty minutes.

Yacht Rock Revue: Primetime · Tonight · Leader Bank Pavilion, Seaport

Soft rock played straight, on the harbor, under a tent. They play the Pavilion again Saturday, when the forecast is worse.

Matinee en Espanol: Como agua para chocolate · Free · Saturday · Connolly Branch library, Jamaica Plain

A free afternoon screening, indoors, in Spanish — a good hedge on a weekend with showers in every day’s forecast.

Robyn Schall · Sunday · The Wilbur, Theater District

Stand-up to close the weekend, three blocks from the Boylston and Tufts stops.

Local

The Democratic National Committee narrowed its shortlist Thursday to Boston, Denver and Philadelphia, cutting Atlanta and Chicago without saying why; party officials had visited all five in April and May. Chairman Ken Martin said the three put forward “incredibly strong bids.” The convention runs Aug 7 to 10, 2028, and a final pick is expected later this year. Boston last hosted in 2004. Republicans have already chosen Houston.

Politics

Mayor Michelle Wu named longtime city worker Kerry Jordan to run the Boston Elections Department, WBUR reports, a department put into receivership after ballot shortages hit multiple precincts in the 2024 presidential election and Secretary of State Bill Galvin opened an investigation. Ahead of this year’s primaries the city says it has hired more than 1,860 poll workers, over 400 of them multilingual, scheduled more than 100 training sessions and run a preparedness exercise last week.

Local

A white box truck had its roof sheared off by an overpass on the eastbound side of Storrow Drive near the Longfellow Bridge during Wednesday’s morning commute, Boston.com reports off pictures shared on social media. It happens most years around the Sept. 1 lease turnover, usually to a rental van driven by somebody who has just moved here. If you are one of the people moving in on the first: Storrow Drive and Memorial Drive are closed to trucks, and the low bridges are the reason.

Business

The Needham-based bank has opened a branch inside the Prudential Center, its 22nd across Greater Boston and southeast New Hampshire, Banker & Tradesman reports. It will be run by Ivette Mesmar and Rocio Guerrero, each with twenty years in branch and relationship management. The bank held $6.32 billion in deposits and $7.45 billion in assets at its second-quarter report, and marked the opening with $10,000 apiece to two local nonprofits, one that works with first-time and first-generation buyers and one that works with high school students.