Carr Properties JV Delivers 1 MSF Trophy Tower

One Congress marks Boston’s largest office project delivery this year. Image courtesy of Pelli Clarke & Partners

One Congress, Boston’s newest trophy tower and the market’s largest office project delivered this year, has opened with its 1 million square feet of Class A space fully preleased.

Developed through a joint venture of Carr Properties, National Real Estate Advisors and The HYM Investment Group, the 43-story tower in downtown Boston is 600 feet tall with views of Boston Harbor and the North End.

State Street Bank agreed in January 2019 to lease 510,000 square feet in the tower followed by technology firm InterSystems, which will occupy 420,000 square feet of space. The two deals were the largest office leases in Boston within the last 20 years. Other tenants include Trillium Asset Management and law firms K&L Gates and Husch Blackwell.

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One Congress on the Boston skyline. Image courtesy of Pelli Clarke & Partners

Designed by Pelli Clarke & Partners and CBT Architects, the tower was built by John Moriarty & Associates. It’s the only office tower over 1 million square feet certified as LEED Platinum in Boston, reflecting the developers’ commitment to forward-thinking sustainability. Built for the post-COVID office environment, the building has MERV-15 filtration that captures 95 percent of particles and ensures four outdoor turns of air per hour.

Developers said One Congress exemplified the flight-to-quality trend seen in recent years as corporations seek newly built towers or those with substantial renovations and additional amenities.

Oliver Carr, CEO of Washington, D.C.,-based Carr, which is also the property manager for One Congress, said in a prepared statement the building sets a new standard for the office sector thorough its exceptional design and focus on sustainability. One Congress is Carr’s first development project in Boston. The firm acquired a 75 percent ownership stake in the office development in July 2019. When it first invested in the project in May 2019, the company split ownership with National and brought HYM on as developer.

Spotlight on amenities

Tenants and visitors enter the building through a triple-height lobby which spans an entire city block in length. The lobby features a dedicated concierge service, collaborative workspaces and a coffee bar.

One Congress opened with 1 million square feet of Class A space fully preleased. Image courtesy of Pelli Clarke & Partners

One Congress is the only office tower in Boston to offer a full-floor amenity center and outdoor space totaling nearly 1 acre. Located on the building’s 11th floor, the hospitality-style amenity spaces were curated by interior design firm Gachot Studios. Features include a 7,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art fitness center, customer lounges, cocktail bar, nearly 4,700 square feet of meeting and conference space along with a marketplace of food offerings curated by restaurateur Stephen Starr. The tower also has a 15,000-square-foot outdoor terrace with several open-air pavilions and an outdoor bar.

The building has a 99-point Walk Score and is close to the Rose Kennedy Greenway and several MBTA stations.