General Electric’s new Boston headquarters will be a catalyst for developing industrial Internet applications and enlarging the growing tech cluster in the Seaport District, executives said today at a groundbreaking ceremony for GE’s new 2.4-acre urban campus, dubbed “Innovation Point.”
CEO Jeffrey Immelt said the company’s dealings with Boston-area businesses and research groups have confirmed the reasons it chose to uproot its headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut after four decades.
“A year into it, we’re thrilled to be here,” Immelt said. “We’ve already got relationships with most of the schools and laboratories in town. We’ve had the chance to see partnerships with the startup communities and business community. I just love the culture of Boston and the can-do attitude.”
Approximately 200 General Electric executives are working in the company’s temporary 60,430-square-foot headquarters at 33-41 Farnsworth St. in Fort Point. GE is building out the sixth floor and begun hiring up to 80 additional employees at that location, Vice President Ann Klee said. The new headquarters will be the home base for 800 employees, as GE hires software engineers and tech staff to bolster its industrial Internet applications.
The $124-billion-a-year conglomerate considered 40 cities for a new headquarters before picking Boston in January 2016 after discussions with city and state economic development officials.
“(GE) talked about the fact that at Logan Airport they can fly to over 55 destinations worldwide non-stop with many more coming the future,” Gov. Charlie Baker said. “They talked about the incredible ecosystem of research institutions, college and universities, innovation organizations, venture capital and other forms of investment they could partner with.”
Since its decision, GE has announced that it will make $50 million in donations to Boston Public Schools and community health center workforce training and workforce diversity efforts in Greater Boston over the next five years. It’s also joined a coalition of organizations fighting opioid addiction in Massachusetts.
And in March, GE said it will partner with nonprofit MassRobotics to establish a digital institute at the new headquarters where it will collaborate with startups to research advanced manufacturing, 3D printing, drones and artificial intelligence.
“We’re going to use this company as another attraction point in the city of Boston, so people continue to come here and have their careers in our city,” Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said. “Innovators from around the world are going to flock to this site.”
Designed by architects Gensler, the new campus reflects collaborative workplace trends and contains high-profile elements of resiliency and sustainability. A rooftop solar veil will generate up to 15 percent of the property’s energy while minimizing heat gain along the southern facade. The new building scheduled to open in 2019 is situated to withstand 500-year storm surges, with electrical transformers located on the second floor and rooftop-mounted primary mechanical equipment.
“In working with GE, everything had to have a purpose,” Principal Douglas Gensler told Banker & Tradesman. “Let’s put the investment in areas that affect the performance of their people.”
The building’s floor plates expand beginning on the seventh floor, where a column-free meeting room can accommodate up to 500 people.
“It’s a function-driven solution and we think it creates a very interesting tension and dynamic quality to the building,” Gensler said.
Boston-based Suffolk Construction is leading the project as construction manager.
While GE says the new headquarters will encourage community engagement, with ground-floor spaces including a museum and cafe open to the public, Monday’s ceremony was invitation-only.
Protestors from the group Make GE Pay milled back and forth behind temporary fences surrounding the parking lot, chanting objections to $145 million in state and city tax breaks that GE received as incentive for picking Boston. They renewed their demands that GE agree to pay over $613 million to remove contamination from the Housatonic River in Western Massachusetts from the company’s former Pittsfield plant.
“It’s pretty simple,” said Eli Gerzon, an organizer with Make GE Pay. “Follow the rules, and pay more because a relatively small percentage of our state revenues come from corporations. The vast majority come from people who are struggling to get by, but one of the largest corporations in the world is getting tax breaks.”
Citizens Commercial Banking provided $90 million in financing to MassDevelopment, which acquired two vacant Procter & Gamble-owned buildings at 5 and 6 Necco Way, which are leased by GE. Those buildings are being renovated and will connect to the new 12-story headquarters by a pedestrian bridge and ground-level plaza.
