WS Development, the company that built and still runs most of Seaport's 33 acres, launched a loyalty app in June 2025 that pays you for the errands you were already running. Park at the lot next to Cisco Brewers, get a point. Grab a coffee at Caffè Nero, get a point. Show up to a free outdoor fitness class on Seaport Common, get a point for that too, no purchase required. The app is called Seaport Insider, and more than a year after its debut it's worth looking at how you earn points and what offers are available.
How a Point Gets Earned
The mechanic is straightforward. Users earn one point per dollar spent at participating retailers, restaurants, entertainment venues, and neighborhood parking garages. In a NEREJ report, Andrea McCullough, WS Development's director of loyalty and CRM, described it as a way to unlock "real-time, location-driven engagement" for the neighborhood's retail partners while giving visitors a simple way to earn something back for time already spent in the district.
Parking is where the program gets genuinely useful for anyone who lives or works nearby, since garage fees are a fixed, recurring cost that most residents pay whether or not a loyalty app exists. The participating lots and garages include:
- 65 Northern Avenue Lot, next to Caffè Nero
- 80 Northern Avenue Lot, next to Cisco Brewers
- One Seaport Garage
- 111 Harborway Garage
- Seaport South Garage
On the retail side, Ariel Foxman, WS Development's area vice president for brand and experience, told WBZ NewsRadio the program currently has about thirty participating restaurants and retailers, with points earned at one location redeemable at another. That's a small enough number that a resident could plausibly learn all of them without much effort.
Points Without Spending a Dollar
The part of the program that separates it from a standard punch card is that you don't have to buy anything to earn points. Foxman described the mechanic directly on the same WBZ segment: attend a free event, like the neighborhood's outdoor fitness series Seaport Sweat or its kids' programming Seaport Smalls, and there's a QR code on-site. Scan it, get points, no transaction required.
That structure rewards behavior that residents were probably doing anyway. Seaport Sweat runs as the district's free outdoor fitness series, and its annual capstone event, Sweatapalooza, took place on September 12 this year as a fitness festival on Harbor Way. Seaport Smalls is the companion program aimed at younger kids, described by WS Development as a weekly outdoor series. Neither event requires a ticket or a dollar spent, but both count toward your point total if you remember to scan on arrival.
The monthly Black Owned Bos. Market in Seaport works the same way. September's edition carried the theme "Rooted in Wellness," and like the fitness series, showing up and scanning in is enough to bank points, even if you walk away without buying anything from the vendors.
Launch Offers and Tenant Offers
The app's early activations give a sense of scale. During launch week in the summer of 2025, WS Development ran a series of pop-up tables where anyone who downloaded the app could redeem a one-time item at no cost: a complimentary order of waffle fries or a hot dog at Stubbys, a dessert cup sample at Lakon Paris Pâtissière, a free churro at Borrachito inside The Superette. Those were one-time launch giveaways rather than a standing benefit, and each was tied to a specific retailer.
The app's more recent updates added an account feature giving users access to limited offers reserved for Seaport tenants specifically. For a resident who parks in the same garage and grabs coffee at the same shop every week, points can accumulate through those regular activities.
App Store Reviews
The app's origin explains some of the early enthusiasm. According to trade coverage from the commercial real estate outlet NEREJ, Seaport Insider had a soft debut during the 2024 Holiday Market at Snowport, where it was used mainly for timed-entry ticket reservations, and more than 50,000 visitors downloaded it that season alone. That's a genuinely large number for a single neighborhood's holiday market.
The picture looks different two years later. The Android listing on AppBrain currently shows the app at just over 10,000 total downloads, with only 63 in the past 30 days. That's not proof the app failed since the original 50,000 figure may have included visitors who never returned after the holiday season ended, and the current number reflects Android only. But it does mean a program that once pulled in tens of thousands of downloads in a single event window is now adding new users at a much slower pace.
Reviews on both app stores include comments about the app and its rewards. One recent Google Play review reported that Snowport ticket purchases failed through Google Pay, PayPal, and multiple cards, and that after creating an account, the app redirected the reviewer to an outside Eventbrite link. Another reviewer said the point tracking was unreliable and separately criticized the value of the rewards, distinguishing those concerns from whether the app functions correctly.
Using Points and Offers
Seaport Insider also functions as a live directory where residents can check what's new, sign up for events like Seaport Sweat or the Black Owned Bos. Market, and find occasional offers at participating businesses. A resident who already parks in one of the five listed parking locations or visits Caffè Nero can earn points through those regular activities.
Seaport Insider combines a points program with a neighborhood directory and event information. Residents can decide whether its features fit their routines and interests.
If you're tracking how Seaport's daily rhythm has shifted this year, from new event programming to the small mechanics of how the neighborhood tries to keep people around, Moving Greater Boston keeps an eye on the details that shape what living here actually feels like week to week.
