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General Electric has signed its first leases for 60,430 square feet of office space spanning four floors at 33-41 Farnsworth St. as it begins the transition to Boston’s Seaport District.
The space includes 43,430 square feet currently occupied by software company Bullhorn, which is moving to 100 Summer St. in early April. GE also has leased 17,000 square feet on the sixth floor effective Oct. 1, said Brian Collins, an executive vice president with landlord Clarion Partners. That deal was worked out within five days.
“They were looking for cool, innovative space in Fort Point and obviously we could satisfy,” Collins said.
GE plans to move approximately 400 employees into Bullhorn’s space on the second, fourth and fifth floors, according to John Wilson, a partner with Transwestern RBJ in Boston.
“It’s kind of happening fast. They want to be in by June,” Wilson said.
Bullhorn assigned the lease to General Electric and Clarion consented and released Bullhorn effective June 1, said Wilson, who represented Bullhorn. Bullhorn’s lease was originally scheduled to run through September 2018.
“(It was a) very unique situation. Tenants typically have a hard time getting off of the lease, except in this case,” Wilson said.
The Fairfield, Connecticut-based conglomerate plans to have 800 employees in Boston including 200 corporate employees that will be relocating from its 526,000-square-foot headquarters.
The next step will be the search for a permanent headquarters. City and state officials have pitched various publicly owned parcels to GE, and a $5 million contribution for a “Digital Foundry” innovation center used by GE employees and other tech startups.
The incentive is part of $145 million in public incentives offered to GE by Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, including $25 million in local property tax breaks and $120 million in state infrastructure grants.
33-41 Farnsworth St. is part of a six-building, 407,458-square-foot office portfolio acquired by Clarion Partners LLC in 2012 for $129.3 million.
