Danish toymaker Lego Group, which announced plans in January to relocate its Americas head office, has identified its new home in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.
Lego, known for its colorful interlocking plastic bricks, said it will move to 1001 Boylston St., at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Newbury Street, in 2026. The company has been in Enfield, Connecticut, since 1975.
The Boylston Street property, under construction, is a mixed-use complex by developer Samuels & Associates that includes about 325,000 square feet of office space, 70,000 square feet for retail restaurants, and 150,000 square feet for residential or hotel uses, as well as a below-grade parking garage with some 150 spaces, according to the Boston Planning & Development Agency.
The development, called the Parcel 12 Project, “offers an important opportunity to repair a barren section of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue disrupted by the [Massachusetts] Turnpike," the agency said. The project was designed to pull together three neighborhoods: Back Bay, Fenway and South End, as well as the suburb of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
It’s the biggest development over the Massachusetts Turnpike since Copley Place opened in early 1984, according to local media reports. The project involves two new buildings connected by a landscaped public plaza.
Lego’s new digs in Boston will span more than 100,000 square feet across five floors overlooking Cambridge, the Charles River, and historic Back Bay with what the company described in a statement as a “sky terrace” on every other floor. Amenities at the property will include an on-site fitness center and well-being room.
“This move aligns with our long-term growth strategy and underscores our commitment to remaining at the forefront of innovation,” Skip Kodak, president of Lego's Americas division, said in the statement. “Boston is one of the United States’ most livable cities, with world class arts and leisure activities, education and research partners, and a thriving business community. ... A modern, collaborative work environment will help creativity and innovation thrive.”
Lego’s new U.S. home will feature spaces for “effective collaboration” as well as “concentrative work zones,” according to the company. The site also will be accessible to those walking and cycling to work and is within walking distance of Boston’s public transit and its Green and Orange Line stops.
Lego, which has had a presence in the United States since 1973, has about 740 people working full time in its Enfield office among more than 3,000 it employs in the United States. The company in April broke ground on a new factory in Richmond, Virginia, that’s expected to be completed in the second half of 2025 and employ 1,760 workers over 10 years.
Lego also has over 100 of its namesake stores in the United States, including four in Massachusetts and a flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
Lego’s planned move comes at a time when Boston’s office vacancy rate has risen to a 10-year high of 10.7%, in contrast to New York and the U.S. average of over 13% each, according to CoStar data. While the city has been hurt by companies slowing real estate expansion plans and “rightsizing” footprints, Boston has the benefit of a “lab office ecosystem,” as well as education and more traditional medical office users that are among its key strengths in “one of the deepest knowledge economies” in the country, according to a CoStar analysis.