The 8 Largest Boston-Area Office Leases Signed This Year

Boston's office market continued to struggle this year with slow leasing activity and rising vacancy, but the city still landed a series of headline-grabbing deals that have given office players confidence in the market's future. 

As of this week, Greater Boston has recorded 5.2M SF of office leasing volume this year, roughly half of 2022's total, according to new data from Cushman & Wakefield.

Cushman & Wakefield shared with Bisnow a list of the largest office leases signed in the Boston area this year. C&W Vice Chairman Michael Joyce said that although the overall level of leasing activity has been down, these deals paint a brighter picture for the future of Boston's office market.

"I think this shows really good signs of what the market is and is going to be in the future," he said. 

The largest leases are a mix of new leases, renewals and subleases mostly centered in Boston's financial district, which saw over 20% vacancy in the third quarter, according to C&W, and the Back Bay neighborhood. The biggest lease of the year came from MFS Investment Management, which signed a 300K SF renewal at Boston Properties' 111 Huntington Ave. five years before its lease was set to expire.

"Tenants still want to be here," C&W Senior Research Manager Riley McMullan said. "They still want to be in downtown Boston. We're not slipping into a doom loop, and it's just an encouraging sign for the market."

1. MFS Investment Management

• Address: 111 Huntington Ave., Back Bay
• Size: 300K SF
• Type: Renewal
• Landlord: Boston Properties

The investment manager had a lease scheduled to expire in 2028, but in September it signed a renewal deal to extend it by another 10 years, the Boston Globe reported. The company has more than 1,500 employees working out of the office, which is spread across 12 floors. MFS moved into the space in 2012, and its square footage will remain the same. Boston Properties developed the 867K SF building in 2002. 

Joyce said that the renewal symbolizes the strength of Boston's commercial business district, which has been hit the hardest by the office leasing slump.

"What's very interesting to us is they kept the same amount of square footage," Joyce said. "That's a real good commitment from a very good tenant for a long-term future commitment in the Back Bay. I think that really sends a very good signal to the marketplace."

2. Deloitte 

• Address: 115 Federal St., Financial District
• Size: 138K SF
• Type: New Lease
• Landlord: MP Boston

In July, consulting firm Deloitte signed a lease at the newly constructed Winthrop Center. The firm plans to relocate from its 135K SF office at 200 Berkeley St. in the Back Bay. Kevin McGovern, New England managing partner at Deloitte, said the company was attracted to the space because of its location.

"First, we want our Boston space optimized for our colleagues, as we continue to shift to a hybrid workplace model, and the broader community to come together and create an impact that matters," McGovern said in a statement to Bisnow in July. "Second, we want to reinforce Deloitte’s commitment to downtown Boston as a thriving business community."

The deal came after MP Boston secured office leases with three tenants at Winthrop Center in 2022: Cambridge Associates, Income Research + Management and McKinsey & Co. Deloitte's lease brought the project's 812K SF of offices to 60% leased.

3. Lego

• Address: 1001 Boylston St., Back Bay
• Size: 134K SF
• Type: New Lease
• Landlord: Samuels & Associates

The Danish toymaker signed the lease in August to relocate its Americas headquarters from Enfield, Connecticut, to Boston. Lego initially announced this move in January. The company will take five floors at Samuels & Associates' 655K SF air rights project that is bridging the Back Bay and Fenway neighborhoods. 

"That's great for the city," Joyce said. "Lego could have gone to any city in the country, and they chose Boston."  

Lego will join automotive tech company CarGurus, which in 2019 signed a 275K SF lease at the project. The development also includes a 150K SF CitizenM hotel that is set to open in the summer of 2024, HospitalityNet reported.

4. Goulston & Storrs

• Address: 1 Post Office Square, Financial District
• Size: 104K SF
• Type: New Lease
• Landlord: Morgan Stanley

In April, the law firm signed a 104K SF lease at the One Post Office Square adaptive reuse project in the financial district. Anchor Line Partners, along with Morgan Stanley, began the $300M renovation on the 42-story building in 2017. The renovation project was an effort to make the 1980s office building competitive after losing an anchor tenant.

Goulston joins Sullivan & Worcester, Appleton Partners, Citi and Eaton Vance in the building. Eaton Vance signed a 282K SF lease in 2022 and will take space on the 14th through 21st floors in March 2024.

5. Toast

• Address: 333 Summer St., Seaport
• Size: 102K SF
• Type: Sublease
• Landlord: ASB Capital Management

The restaurant tech company took 102K SF of sublease space at 333 Summer St. in Fort Point after terminating a prior lease in the Fenway area. Toast subleased the space from the GoTo Group, formerly known as LogMeIn. The company plans to move into the space in early 2024 and agreed to pay $17M for the four-year sublease, it revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. 

Toast revealed in May it was terminating its 130K SF lease at Alexandria Real Estate Equities and Samuels & Associates' 401 Park Drive. The company agreed to pay $16M to exit 110K SF by the end of June and vacate the remaining 22K SF by the end of the year. 

6. Athenahealth

• Address: 80 Guest St., Urban West
• Size: 99K SF
• Type: Sublease
• Landlord: NB Development Group

Health information technology provider Athenahealth in April signed a lease to move its headquarters from Watertown into the former Bose Corp. offices at NB Development Group's Boston Landing campus, the Boston Business Journal reported. The company will take space at the 80 Guest St. building.

Bose vacated nearly 130K SF at the property last year, and Athenahealth is subleasing part of that space. The company is moving from a 308K SF location at The Arsenal on the Charles in Watertown, where its lease was set to expire in 2034, the BBJ reported. Athenahealth previously owned the Watertown property, but in 2019 it sold it to Alexandria Real Estate Equities for $526M in a sale-leaseback agreement, the Boston Globe reported.

7. Intel

• Address: 200 Beaver Brook Road, Boxborough
• Size: 98K SF
• Type: New Lease
• Landlord: Campanelli and Trigate

Intel signed a new lease at Campanelli and Trigate's 409K SF The Park at Beaver Brook campus in Boxborough. The company signed the lease in the first quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

In November, the landlord closed on $38.2M in financing to add a new food hall and relocate TÜV Rheinland from Littleton into a 64K SF building on the campus. The joint venture bought the campus in 2021 from Cisco for $10.5M, the Worcester Business Journal reported.

Also in November, Intel sold a 417K SF office building in Hudson, which was once used to make the company's microchips, to National Development.

8. Amazon

• Address: 101 Main St., Cambridge
• Size: 93K SF
• Type: Renewal
• Landlord: RREEF Property Trust

The e-commerce giant in January renewed its lease at RREEF Property Trust's Riverfront Office Park in Cambridge, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Amazon moved to the office in 2013, initially taking up 130K SF across six floors, the Boston Globe reported at the time.

In the time since it signed that lease, Amazon has expanded in the Greater Boston area with new office leases totaling more than 1M SF at WS Development's One Boston Wharf Road and 111 Harbor Way in the Seaport.