Goodbye, Hancock Tower. How does 200 Clarendon St. roll off the tongue?
Landlord Boston Properties has formally renamed New England’s tallest building, the 60-story John Hancock Tower, now that Manulife’s John Hancock Insurance division no longer occupies any office space in the mirrored glass rhomboid.
“We’re not allowed to call it (the Hancock Tower) anymore as the Hancock Manulife lease expired at the end of the second quarter,” Boston Properties President Douglas Linde said during a conference call today.
Boston Properties acquired the property in 2010 for $930 million. Leases by John Hancock and State Street Corp. totaling 414,000 square feet recently expired, increasing vacancies in the 1.7-million-square-foot tower. Boston Properties is repositioning the former State Street offices as tech space under the “120 St. James” name, reflecting a new entrance on that avenue.
In 2011, the American Institute of Architects bestowed its Twenty-Five Year award on the then-Hancock, praising architects I.M. Pei & Partners for designing a tower that didn’t overwhelm the historic architecture of Copley Square and all but disappeared at certain times of day.