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Lego blocks out space for new US headquarters in the CarGurus building in the Back Bay
By adamg on Mon, 08/21/2023 - 11:11am
1001 Boylston on the left, with new turnpike scenic overlook.
The Lego Group announced today it's leased five stories at 1001 Boylston St. - the new tower at Boylston and Mass Ave. - and expects to begin moving its US corporate operations there from Enfield, CT. starting in the middle of 2025.
Lego says it will take four years to fully transition its operations from Connecticut, although it plans to start using its new Boston space as its US headquarters by the end of 2026.
The location was strategically chosen to draw upon the region's diverse talent pool and foster strong relationships with other innovative companies in the area. ...
Spread over five floors and more than 100,000 square feet, the new office spaces are being created with innovation and design at its heart, with spaces for effective collaboration as well as concentrative work zones.
1001 Boylston Street has been designed with wellbeing, accessibility, and sustainability in mind. The site will be accessible to those walking and cycling to work, as well as being well plugged in to public transit with Green and Orange Line stops in walking distance.
The tower and its neighboring building, being built by Samuels & Associates, sits in part on a platform above the Massachusetts Turnpike.
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Comments
Toyriffic News
I bet Lego will be able to see BU's Jenga Building from there!
A good move.
As a native of Connecticut, I continue to hope things like this will someday make my home state realize it isn't the 1950s anymore, and that corporations are looking for cities with transportation and shopping and entertainment and amenities. To paraphrase one formerly CT-based CEO, their executives don't care if you can look out the window and see deer in the forest.
Yeah but
Lego has been based in Enfield for decades.
I guess MA offered some hellva tax breaks. Because money is usually why companies move. This thing they say about talent is pure BS... also is a slap in the face to CT residents.
Lets not forget CT is the home of Yale and UConn. CT has decent talent pool.
- signed a former Nutmegger
The problem for CT
Is that it sits in the shadow of both NYC and Boston. You need good air service to attract or keep large multinational corporations but Bradley Airport is always going to struggle to compete for people who can drive to JFK or BOS for a non-stop to a broad array of domestic and global destinations.
CT has a good talent pool but when your urban options are Hartford/New Haven/Waterbury/Danbury/New London/New Bri-in it's pretty lame compared to NYC or Boston. The suburbs are nice but the cities make Worcester look cosmopolitan.
???
There are other states with better tax incentives than Massachusetts. Their new location is better for attracting younger workers. If it were purely about taxes they would have just moved a few miles north of their current location.
I'm told that Boston has a
I'm told that Boston has a few universities too.
If Yale and UConn students were staying in CT after graduation
Then LEGO wouldn't be leaving. And Raytheon would have never left.
Moving to Enfield isn't
Moving to Enfield isn't exactly staying where you went to college. New Haven is about 60 miles from there, about as far as it is from the NYC line.
I've biked to Enfield from Medford
And stayed overnight on a few occasions. Enfield is really is the textbook definition of a car centric suburb. It's not a bad place but walking anywhere requires waiting 5 minutes for a 20 second walk light and running across a 4-6 lane road in which the drivers do no expect anyone on foot to be crossing. It took a long time to walk past the vastly oversized parking lots.
I do remember one of the
I do remember one of the principals for GE(probably Jeffrey Immelt) waxing poetic about being able to walk to the office after moving from Fairfield to Boston.
Will it become like GE did?
Will it become like GE did? Lots of tax breaks (for the river polluter) but after 6 years, moving again.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2022/10/19/general-electric-seaport-hq-haverhi...
Hope it's as good as the GE
Hope it's as good as the GE deal, where they had to pay back the tax breaks when the jobs didn't materialize
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2019/02/14/says-will-pay-back-state...
MassDevelopment also made a
MassDevelopment also made a tidy piece of change when they sold the HQ along Fort Point that GE promised to fill.
If they can afford that space...
Y'all are spending too much on used cars...
Like we have a choice anymore?
n/t
Apparently...
Demand for used cars is decreasing but surely that's not why Car Gurus had to delay their earnings report a few weeks ago
When it comes to new buildings, I can be pretty cynical
But so far I've been refreshingly pleased by this project. First, it fixes a scar in the streetscape created long ago by the turnpike. Second, the building(s) itself is interesting. Third, the bulk of the project is broken up in a way that feels inviting (based on drawings, I haven't made ti there in person yet). The overall impression is, “Come in, we want you here.” instead of “LOOK AT THIS BUILDING, EFF EVERYTHING ELSE.” More of this please, less off all the other crap.
What was here long ago?
There was always at least some gap in the streetwall here because of the railroad right-of-way, which the Turnpike greatly widened. Before the Turnpike was built, what was in this location?
Mapjunction
https://mapjunction.com/?lat=42.3518504&lng=-71.0846229&clipperX=0.65654...
Before the Turnpike, there was the Boston and Albany Railroad...and before that, the Worcester Rail Road. And even before Back Bay was filled in and existed at all...the railroad went across the water in approximately the same place the Pike would eventually be.
"The Turnpike/ROW didn't land on Back Bay...Back Bay landed on the ROW!" to paraphrase Denzel paraphrasing Malcom X.
Looking at some pre-Pike maps
Looking at some pre-Pike maps like the 1950 one, the railroad ROW looked pretty compact, less than half the length of the Boylston-Newbury block. Of course east of Dalton Street, what's now the Pru complex was a giant rail yard.
Great research @Kaz. Thanks!
Great research @Kaz. Thanks!
Not exactly an iconic building
Those stubby little "towers" looks ridiculous. There was once a proposal for a 700 ft tall building there, which may have been too much, but half that would have been fine. Boston needs to build taller where it can to relieve the redevelopment pressure off the rest. 13 and 15 stories won't do it.
You might have the wrong location
This building is on Pike air rights parcel 12, which is restricted by Logan flight paths to 525 feet. There was a proposal for a 700 foot building on parcel 15, which is on the other side of Mass Ave on the triangle bound by Boylston, Cambria, and Dalton. Per Massport, you can build to 1,000 feet at that location. That proposal was approved, but failed to happen when the developers started suing each other.