KKR Signs Big Lease To Relocate, Expand Boston Office
Global investment firm KKR & Co. has signed a long-term lease to relocate to Boston’s Financial District, another big win for a market still working to recover from the pandemic.
The 132,500 SF lease, first reported by The Boston Globe and announced by KKR Thursday morning, will significantly expand the firm's office footprint in Boston.
A KKR spokesperson declined to disclose its current square footage at 20 Guest St. in Brighton, but the new lease is more than twice as large as the 46K SF office space it was reported to occupy there in 2017.
KKR employs more than 300 employees and lists 20 additional vacancies in the Boston area. Burke Malek, head of KKR’s Boston office, characterized the move as a local expansion for the company.
“As we've outgrown our existing space, this strategic move downtown positions us to invest in local talent and expand our operating platform to support our U.S. and global operations,” Malek said in a press release.
Three brokerage firms worked on the deal: JLL, Newmark and Cushman & Wakefield. The release didn’t specify what role each firm played.
The 15-year deal represents a significant anchor lease for International Place, a 1.8M SF office complex consisting of two towers reaching 46 and 35 stories tall.
Owner The Chiofaro Co. launched a $100M renovation on the property in 2024 after investment firm Eaton Vance vacated 340K SF to relocate to One Post Office Square in Boston. The renovation effort, which is nearing completion, includes a new 16K SF amenity floor spanning the two towers, as well as updated lobbies for both towers.
This is the second large-scale downtown Boston lease announced in the past two weeks. On Sept. 8, Hasbro said it would relocate its headquarters from Rhode Island to 400 Summer Street in Boston’s Seaport District. As with the KKR deal, Hasbro's new lease of 265K SF will more than double its office footprint in New England. The Boston office will be home to some 700 workers, according to Hasbro’s press release.
KKR opted for the renovated International Place over some of the city's newly developed office buildings that have large amounts of available space, including Hines’ 691-foot-tall South Station Tower and Boston Global Investors' 10 World Trade. Those two buildings, which offer a combined 900K SF of office space, have been largely vacant since their construction began on spec before the pandemic.
A KKR spokesperson told Bisnow that it chose the downtown location in part because of its accessibility to transportation options, including South Station and North Station.
KKR’s and Hasbro’s downtown expansions are positive signs for a market that has seen historic vacancy rates in recent years. Downtown Boston’s office market has been buffeted by the remote work trend that began during the pandemic and the looming threat of tariffs from the Trump administration, but it has been showing some nascent signs of recovery. In its Q2 report, JLL reported the city’s office vacancy rate declined for the fourth consecutive quarter, to 21.2%.
