Living next to a Dunkin’ can increase property values, but don’t overlook the downsides

Georgina Miles thought nothing of the sight of a police car parked outside the Dunkin’, next to her family’s Beacon Hill home.

Around 1 or 2 a.m. on Feb. 18, Miles, 29, was walking home from a friend’s house when she spotted the police looking into the Dunkin’, which is across the street from the State House. Upon entering the lobby, Miles was hit by a foul odor. When she woke up the next morning, the stench was exponentially worse.

“This overpowering corpse smell started to permeate our entire building,” said Miles, a marketing coordinator for a women’s health startup who had to vacate the fifth-floor unit for a few days. The smell was worse in the lobby, a few doors down from the neighboring Dunkin’, which was closed on weekends. Miles feared that something or someone was dead nearby.

“We have quite a few seniors in the building,” Miles said. “Fortunately, they were all found.”

Dunkin’ did not respond to requests for comment, there is no police report on the incident and it is unclear what caused the smell or where it came from.

The management company was called in to add air fresheners and investigate the odor emanating from the basement the residential building shares with Dunkin’. Although the stench eventually subsided, residents were never informed of the cause of the olfactory assault that crept up to the penthouse, above Miles’ house. Sure, being able to get a regular downstairs can be convenient, but living near Dunkin’ can cause more problems than what fits in a box of Munchkins.

And remarkable benefits.

In Massachusetts, it’s not unlikely to spot a Dunkin’ in the distance while you wait in another’s drive-thru. Deeply ingrained in the fabric of New England, the chain’s presence can have a profound effect on the real estate surrounding it. In their 2015 book, “Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate,” Stan Humphries, the platform’s chief economist, and Spencer Rascoff, the CEO, wrote that homes near Dunkin’s and Starbucks have appreciated by 80% since 1997.

“Between 1997 and 2012, homes now located near Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts followed similar historical trajectories, far outpacing overall home value appreciation,” they wrote. This was also noted in a 2018 Harvard Business School study examining housing price data and Yelp reviews, which determined that the entry of Starbucks and other coffee shops into a neighborhood is indicative of the growth in housing prices.

Luxury marketer and content creator Katherine Kranenburg calls this the “Starbucks effect” and says it’s a “total bonus” for real estate.

“It creates a sense of community. You discover things in a coffee shop,” Kranenburg said. “Some of the most important people I’ve been to conferences with, if they’re traveling and want to know an area, they’ll go and sit at the cafe.”

Samantha Stumpo lives next to Dunkin’ and across the street from Starbucks on West Broadway in South Boston, and frequents one of the two daily. (“I eat a donut every day, but no one believes me,” she said.) As a real estate agent, she believes it’s better to have a restaurant nearby than a retail business open, which can make people “uncomfortable”. As a Bostonian, having both places nearby makes her “feel at home.”

Of course, the benefits of living near Dunkin’ aren’t unique to New England. Sarene Leeds, professional writer and host of the podcast “Emotional Abuse is Real,” lives in White Plains, New York, across the street from a Dunkin’ at a Citgo station. Her 7-year-old daughter, Diana, loves going to Dunkin’ occasionally for a chocolate glazed donut with rainbow sprinkles. When the family visited Boston, they made sure to take Diana’s photo in front of the Dunkin’ on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing.

“She told me, ‘I really want to go,'” Leeds said, “so we took a picture of her there and bought her a donut. It was really special.”

Despite the convenience, there are downsides to living so close to Dunkin’.

Derek Camara, 36, is sometimes awakened between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. by a dump truck trying to come down the driveway to empty the trash at the Dunkin’ behind his Dorchester home. Because a chain link gate was installed at the entrance to the driveway, drivers have difficulty navigating their way through the space.

“It’s literally a scene from Austin Powers,” Camara said, referring to the fictional British spy’s attempt at a three-point turn. “I want to lose my mind.”

Residents who live near Dunkin’s drive-thru locations also have to deal with traffic. Jillian McGrath, 29, found herself stuck in her parking space on Christmas Day because the line for a Dunkin’ stretched the length of her Fall River street.

“You would think people are at home, but no, everyone is out trying to get their coffee,” said McGrath, who works at another Dunkin’ but hopes to attend medical school. “I was able to pull out after about 10 minutes.”

Besides the stench that filled his building, or the time a pipe burst “and it sounded like a swimming pool in our basement,” Miles said his “biggest complaint” was with Dunkin’ customers “who relieved themselves in front of their door.” .” Because his house is so close to the Freedom Trail, tourists mistakenly assume that Dunkin’ has public restrooms. As a result, events like the Boston Marathon or Patriots and Red Sox parades result in human waste being found on doorsteps.

“It’s completely normal at times like these for us to find Dunkin cups full of urine or feces,” said Miles, who noted that it’s tourists and sporty partygoers that she spots out and about. to relieve himself on his porch. “We also see quite a bit of vomit.”

While there are pros and cons to living next to a Dunkin’, everyone we spoke to noted one thing: It’s extremely convenient.

Kyle Hemingway, 36, a creative strategist, previously lived diagonally across the street from Dunkin’, inside the block’s new store on Dorchester Avenue. Every morning he would glance out the window and witness the distinct New England beauty of a group of people with cigarettes in one hand and Dunkin cups in the other, watching the numbers of Keno scrolling through the window. If the line was so long that they were going out in droves, he would skip his morning order.

“That’s how I could gauge whether or not I was getting my coffee,” Hemingway said.

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