things are just dandy
As mergers grow, so does glut of Hub office space
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | January 29, 2005
A takeover of Gillette Co. that shrinks its executive presence in Boston could leave a lot of empty floors toward the top of the 52-story Prudential building, adding to the city's existing merger-driven glut of sublease office space.
Real estate executives said yesterday that Gillette, a longtime Pru tenant, occupies about 480,000 square feet of space on about 20 floors -- mostly the ones with the best views, on floors 38 and above. That's about 40 percent of all the space in the 1.2 million-square-foot tower.
Meantime, the other signature building in the Back Bay, the Hancock Tower, is already feeling the effects of the 2004 takeover of its headquarters company, John Hancock Financial Services Inc., by Manulife Financial Corp.
"You've got 420,000 square feet at the Hancock Tower subleasing," said David A. Martel, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Inc.
"Those are huge availabilities in two of the icon towers or premier buildings in town. It's certainly a cause for concern, given the demand."