Corporate expansion: A man walks by JPMorgan headquarters in New York City. The firm has a sizeable commercial banking operation and a fast-growing retail network that’s now up to 89 branches in Massachusetts. — Reuters
NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to move its Boston offices to the new South Station Tower – and join the rarefied ranks of companies that have stamped their names on the city’s skyline.
In a sign of its growing clout in Massachusetts, the New York-based bank formally applied last week to install its name atop one of Boston’s tallest skyscrapers.
It wants to put “JPMorgan” in 12-foot lettering on the building more than 650 ft up, according to its application with the city, which was obtained through a public records request.
Corporate tower signage is common in many US cities, but in Boston it’s historically been a rarity reserved for a few big local employers.
While that’s started to change over the past decade – and the Prudential Tower has long been a notable exception – most of the branding still belongs to Boston-based companies such as State Street Corp and the insurer John Hancock.
JPMorgan also intends to occupy around 250,000 sq ft (23,200 sq m) in South Station Tower, which would make it the skyscraper’s largest tenant yet, according to sources. The agreement isn’t final.
Hines, the developer of the 51-storey building, has struggled to fill it amid a decline in office demand spurred by the pandemic, which upended the United States weeks after construction began.
The tower, located above Boston’s busiest transit hub, opened this year in September. A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment.
Earlier this year, the bank opened its new headquarters in New York, the centrepiece of a multibillion-dollar, multiblock campus in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.
JPMorgan posted a record profit last year for a US lender.
The company employs about 2,200 people in Massachusetts, with a main Boston office at Rowes Wharf.
JPMorgan has a sizeable commercial banking operation and a fast-growing retail network that’s now up to 89 branches in the state.
It only just opened its first retail location in the Boston area in 2018.
JPMorgan earned the city’s provisional approval for the signage design in October, but it still needs a building permit, according to copies of emails received through the public records request.
On Halloween, Boston officials gave the bank permission to see what it would look like, if only for a few hours.
But it sought just to put up a few of the letters – limited to “ProM”, according to JPMorgan’s request – in order to hide its identity from onlookers.
What makes the signage request even more unusual is that South Station Tower is more than an office building – it’s also a luxury high-rise.
The building’s top floors will feature 166 condominiums carrying the Ritz-Carlton brand.
Hines has yet to announce leases for most of the office space in the building. Citadel has a small location on the top floor.
The property’s other tenants include the law firm Jones Day and insurer FM.
The building features a private park for office users on an 11th-floor roof.
Around Boston, new and newly renovated office towers have found some success attracting tenants. — Bloomberg
