Panera Bread has signed a 12-year lease for roughly 102,000 square feet of office space at 133 Boston Post Road in Weston, Mass. The move marks a corporate headquarters relocation for the fast-casual bakery-cafe chain as it moves out of St. Louis. The firm will occupy the fourth floor of the 356,995-square-foot property owned by BXP. While financial terms were not disclosed, the deal reportedly includes options to renew for two additional five-year terms. 

The move will expand Panera’s corporate footprint from the 72,000-square-foot space it occupied in St. Louis —  its home base since the company was founded in 1987 in the nearby suburb of Kirkwood. The original business was acquired in 1993 by Au Bon Pain (led by Ron Shaich), which eventually rebranded the entire chain to Panera Bread. Panera will maintain a support center in St. Louis and currently holds a 39,000-square-foot office in nearby Newton, Mass. Employees relocating to the new Weston headquarters are expected to be fully transitioned by July 2027. 

In a memo to staff, CEO Paul Carbone noted that the relocation “will allow us to fully align our teams.” Carbone, a Boston-area native who previously worked at Dunkin’ and SharkNinja, joined Panera Brands as Chief Financial Officer in 2023 before stepping into the CEO role in 2025. The move comes amid a turnaround plan launched last year focusing on menu offerings, pricing, and service across the chain’s roughly 2,250 locations. 

Although only surfacing publicly in July, the transaction was executed earlier in the year, with the lease recorded in the Middlesex Registry of Deeds in April. Details were first reported by the Weston Observer.

Weston is better known as an affluent residential suburb than an commercial office hub. However, the 133 Boston Post Road campus spans 74 acres and features unique sustainability infrastructure, including the nation’s first deep-water cooling system and the largest privately-owned ground-mounted solar array in Massachusetts. Onsite amenities include a cafeteria, fitness center, conference facility, and auditorium.

Located near the Route 128 / Route 20 interchange close to Waltham, the property is poised for further development: Weston voters approved campus rezoning in late 2025, and BXP has proposed adding 480 housing units across three phases.