BXP Lands 400 KSF Lease Renewal at Boston Tower
A law firm is doubling its space and committing through 2041.
BXP has inked a 413,000-square-foot office lease renewal with Ropes & Gray at the Prudential Tower, a 1.2 million-square-foot building in Boston. The law firm will occupy the space through 2041.
Ropes & Gray moved into the upper floors of the high-rise in the fall of 2010. BXP’s headquarters is within its own tower, occupying 25,000 square feet, according to CommercialEdge data.
Additional tenants include Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston (39,185 square feet) and Big Pine Capital (17,000 square feet). The tower was 97.9 percent leased as of September, according to BXP’s supplement for 2024’s third quarter.
The 52-story tower at 800 Boylston St. debuted in 1965, featuring 28,500-square-foot floorplates. At 749 feet, it is the second-tallest office building in Boston after the 790-foot-tall tower at 200 Clarendon St., which is also owned by BXP, the same source shows. BXP, formerly Boston Properties, acquired Prudential Tower in 1998 for $388 million.
READ ALSO: Office Report: Office Sector Decline Continues Amid Flexibility Shift
The office high-rise is the largest property within the Prudential Center, a five-building, 3.6 million-square-foot office campus including 653,000 square feet of retail and about 3 million square feet of office space. The Center is within walking distance of the Charles River and about 2 miles from downtown Boston.
Prudential Center includes amenities such as a post office, car wash, direct connection with the Green Line MBTA station, as well as a 3,000-space parking garage, among others.
Greater Boston’s office leasing activity picks up the pace
Metro Boston witnessed a growth in aggregate office leasing activity for the third quarter in a row, with the figure clocking in at 1.9 million square feet from June to September and besting the previous quarter by 31 percent, according to a report by Avison Young.
The City on a Hill’s office availability rate stood at 28 percent in September, unmoved from June, the same source reveals. This marked the first time the index didn’t rise since 2022’s third quarter. Trophy buildings fared significantly better, with a rate of 17.3 percent.
The prime office space of trophy buildings was in high demand, accounting for 22 percent of all leasing activity during the third quarter, Avison Young shows. The figure was just 6 percent the previous quarter.
As return-to-office policies continue to evolve, Greater Boston’s Friday office visitations spiked 35 percent year-over-year through August, the report points out. The overall office visitation rate remained resilient, improving by 1.5 percent during the same period and reaching 57.3 percent of prepandemic levels in August.
BXP landed another lease renewal this summer when Bain Capital doubled down on its 378,000-square-foot agreement at 200 Clarendon St., formerly John Hancock Tower. The asset was 99 percent leased in September, BXP’s supplement shows.
You must be logged in to post a comment.