50 Post Office Sq (Fomer Verizon Building Tower)

GMACK24

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An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street, Boston, MA, was approved last week by Verizon?s Board of Directors. The sale of the building to Kennedy Associates/Commonwealth Ventures is expected to be finalized by the end of the month.

What we can say at this time is that moves are expected to begin sometime in mid-to-late 2009.

Most employees will move to another location in Boston, although some relocations could be to other nearby areas.
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

What does the buying company do, and what use are they likely to have for the building?
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

GMACK, was this published anywhere yet, or are you getting this in-house?
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

yeah sorry.
In - House Email.
Things are very very still up in the air.
I am sure the media will cover it in the following weeks.

no clue what the incoming company plans to do with the building.
But they are going to have to do a LOT of work to the building.
There has been little to no upkeep for the past 70 years.
ha ha ha

But really the building inside is in pretty poor condition.
I am going to have to get my camera and take some interior photos prior to the move.

they are saying we have to be out mid 2009.
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

Well, if they are naming names and dates I'm guessing things are pretty well set in stone.

While this will probably be a net benefit for the city and the other Financial District workers (depending on what the new company does with the building) it pretty much sucks to be us.

I'll be pissed if I get shipped up to Malden. :mad:
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

Any idea what will happen to the telephone museum?
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

^^^

I think it is ""Safe"" to assume it will be part of the arrangement to keep the musuem as well as the switching equipment.

The switching equipment are the first 3 or 4 floors then the other 16 are good for office space.
It really was a good move for the company because honeslty there are only employees on like 6 of the 18 floors its crazy to keep operating a building like that. With all the empty floors its weird in there .....

: )
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

They also could have centralized a lot of their suburban operations into 185, which I would have preferred.

But yeah this is probably the best for the company. :(
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

Hey, ArchBoston beat the Herald (and the Globe).

Sale near of Verizon?s Post Office Sq. building
By Jay Fitzgerald
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

About 1,500 Verizon employees would be moved out of the company?s famous Post Office Square building next year if a new agreement to sell the landmark property moves forward.

Verizon said yesterday that it has a tentative sale agreement with Kennedy Associates/Commonwealth Ventures, with the deal expected to close later this month. Commonwealth Ventures is also involved with developments in the Seaport and Fort Point Channel areas.

No financial details were released yesterday about the sale of the 18-story, 875,000-square-foot building known for its art deco trimmings, marble interior floors and prime location in the heart of the Financial District.

Real estate experts speculated last summer, when the building was first put on the sale block, that it could fetch about $300 million. But that was before troubles emerged in the financial markets due to the subprime-mortgage meltdown.

The building, originally built in 1947 by AT&T for its New England Telephone unit, is believed to need extensive interior renovation.

Richard Galvin, president of Commonwealth Ventures, declined to comment yesterday.

Phil Santoro, a Verizon spokesman, said most of the 1,500 employees would move to Verizon facilities at 6 Bowdoin Square and 125 High St. Some employees would go to a leased facility somewhere in the Boston area.
Verizon has been selling regional headquarters across the country after scaling back its New England work force over the years. The telecom giant now employs about 14,000 people in Massachusetts.

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1118051
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

Hmmm...125 High...that would be agreeable,.
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

What was on this lot before 1947?
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

I seem to remember seeing pictures of an old ornate 2nd Emipire-style office building in this area but that may have been on what is now Post Office Sq Park, so I'm not too sure
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

Yes, there was a pair of buildings, similar in scale but differing in stylistic details that were the headquarters of N.E. Mutual Life Insurance Co.. Tower, statues, mansard roofs, and rich stonework....all were lost for N.E. Telephone's deco tower.
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

I'm also curious how we came to have a Deco building put up as late as 1947, since I associate that style so strongly with the 1930s.
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

Designed in the 30's, "on hold" during WWII (we needed the steel for other things), built in 1947.
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street





 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

Verizon sells HQ building

Boston Business Journal - by Michelle Hillman
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - 12:45 PM EDT

After more than a year of putting the building on the market, then taking it off, then putting it back on, Verizon has sold its Boston headquarters building.

The property at 185 Franklin St. sold to a joint venture of Kennedy Associates and Commonwealth Ventures for $192 million. The sale was recorded on Sept. 29 with the Massachusetts Registry of Deeds. The seller is listed as Verizon New England Inc. and the buyer as 185 Franklin Street Investment LLC.

Verizon spokesman Phil Santoro declined to comment on the closing but said in a previous interview that Verizon employees at 185 Franklin would move to 125 High St. or 6 Bowdoin Square in Boston. Employees could also move to 8 Harrison Ave. in Boston. There are approximately 1,700 Verizon employees who work at the 18-story, 875,000-square-foot building, which is directly across the street from Post Office Square Park in Boston?s Financial District.

Santoro said in the previous interview that Verizon was selling the downtown building to maximize efficiency. ?This is one of several moves we?re making and have been making in the last several years,? he said.

Verizon has sold off various pieces of its real estate portfolio and consolidated workers into leased property across the state.

The building at 185 Franklin St. was constructed in 1947 and was the former headquarters of New England Telephone.

Link
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

To answer some earlier questions:

Verizon will retain ownership of several floors to continue central office operations and the Bell Garrett museum will be relocated to another Verizon facility in the region.
(An internal email)
 
Re: An agreement to sell 185 Franklin Street

What about the mural? (And who is 'Garrett' ?)
 

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