{"id":4637,"date":"2025-07-02T11:43:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/?p=4637"},"modified":"2025-07-02T11:46:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T11:46:37","slug":"law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Law Firms Help Drive Leasing in Boston Office Market Amid Shaky Life Sciences Demand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston office market remains one of the most active in the country when it comes to new development. In fact, nearly 5.9 million square feet of office space was under construction in May according to Yardi Research Data, which is the equivalent of 2.3% of the market\u2019s total stock.<\/p>\n<p>Much of that pipeline is tied to life sciences \u2014 a sector long synonymous with office and lab space demand in Boston, but one that\u2019s now facing funding constraints and slower absorption following years of aggressive expansion. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2022\/09\/22\/business\/one-final-pieces-puzzle-boston-landing-is-place\/\">Only one new project<\/a> \u2014 the 350,000-square-foot third phase of Innovation Square at 60 Guest St. \u2014 has broken ground in the last year.<\/p>\n<p>However, it\u2019s worth noting that, according to Bisnow, landlords and tenants at the publication\u2019s Boston Life Sciences Summit said that local companies were vacating older lab buildings or pandemic-era office-to-lab conversions in favor of newly built, purpose-driven lab space. Now, in a more tenant-friendly market, many of these premium assets \u2014 once out of financial reach \u2014 are more accessible.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, despite headwinds, Boston\u2019s fundamentals remain somewhat stronger than the national baseline. Specifically, the office vacancy rate stood at 16.9% as of May, which is below the 19.4% national average. At the same time, average asking rents came in at $46.06 per square foot (down 1.4% year-over-year).<\/p>\n<p>Even so, one bright spot for leasing activity has come from the legal sector. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bisnow.com\/boston\/news\/office\/boston-law-firms-see-spike-in-leasing-activity-fueled-by-expirations-rto-mandates-129819?utm_source=X&amp;utm_medium=Organic&amp;utm_content=News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">separate Bisnow article<\/a>, law firms signed approximately 800,000 square feet of leases in Boston during the last 12 months. To be precise, more than 70% of leasing activity in 2025 has come from law firm renewals. Notable deals include Ropes &amp; Gray\u2019s 413,000-square-foot renewal and expansion at Prudential Tower, as well as Jones Day\u2019s 41,000-square-foot lease at South Station Tower.<\/p>\n<p>The same article noted that 62 law firms have leases expiring between 2026 and 2028, representing a potential 1.6 million square feet of demand arriving in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, on the investment side, $633 million in office properties changed hands year-to-date through the end of May. What\u2019s more, the average sale price was $237 per square foot \u2014 well above the national average of $194. That total sits slightly below the same period in 2024, when $761 million in office sales closed at an average of $262 per square foot.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston office market remains one of the most active in the country when it comes to new development. In fact, nearly 5.9 million square feet of office space was under construction in May according to Yardi Research Data, which is the equivalent of 2.3% of the market\u2019s total stock. Much of that pipeline is tied to life sciences \u2014 a sector long synonymous with office and lab space demand in Boston, but one that\u2019s now facing funding constraints and slower absorption following years of aggressive expansion. Only one new project \u2014 the 350,000-square-foot third phase of Innovation Square at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3163,"featured_media":4639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-office-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Legal Sector Drives Leasing in Boston Office Market<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Law firms offer lease boost to Boston office market as it sees wider cooling affect due to slowing demand for life sciences space.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Legal Sector Drives Leasing in Boston Office Market\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Law firms offer lease boost to Boston office market as it sees wider cooling affect due to slowing demand for life sciences space.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CommercialSearch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-02T11:43:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-02T11:46:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Boston-Office.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Preston\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Preston\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/\",\"name\":\"Legal Sector Drives Leasing in Boston Office Market\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Boston-Office.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-02T11:43:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-02T11:46:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/44a8a1fa2b4207afba1c2bb0ef1e2d80\"},\"description\":\"Law firms offer lease boost to Boston office market as it sees wider cooling affect due to slowing demand for life sciences space.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Boston-Office.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Boston-Office.jpg\",\"width\":1300,\"height\":800},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Law Firms Help Drive Leasing in Boston Office Market Amid Shaky Life Sciences Demand\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"CommercialSearch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/44a8a1fa2b4207afba1c2bb0ef1e2d80\",\"name\":\"Matthew Preston\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a6960d93eec870b7a4ba3e017196ffd2493e00eae6d176dceb85ed1d0847184?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a6960d93eec870b7a4ba3e017196ffd2493e00eae6d176dceb85ed1d0847184?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matthew Preston\"},\"description\":\"Matthew has covered commercial real estate for CommercialCafe since 2022. He focuses on the office and industrial sectors, reporting on leasing, development, and investment across national markets and individual submarkets. His work draws on data and original research. He also writes about demographic shifts and urban innovation in U.S. cities. The New York Times, The Real Deal, Bisnow, The Business Journals, and Yahoo Finance have cited his reporting.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/author\/matthew-preston\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Legal Sector Drives Leasing in Boston Office Market","description":"Law firms offer lease boost to Boston office market as it sees wider cooling affect due to slowing demand for life sciences space.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Legal Sector Drives Leasing in Boston Office Market","og_description":"Law firms offer lease boost to Boston office market as it sees wider cooling affect due to slowing demand for life sciences space.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/","og_site_name":"CommercialSearch","article_published_time":"2025-07-02T11:43:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-02T11:46:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1300,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Boston-Office.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matthew Preston","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Preston","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/","name":"Legal Sector Drives Leasing in Boston Office Market","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Boston-Office.jpg","datePublished":"2025-07-02T11:43:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-02T11:46:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/44a8a1fa2b4207afba1c2bb0ef1e2d80"},"description":"Law firms offer lease boost to Boston office market as it sees wider cooling affect due to slowing demand for life sciences space.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Boston-Office.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Boston-Office.jpg","width":1300,"height":800},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/law-firms-drive-leasing-in-boston-office-market\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Law Firms Help Drive Leasing in Boston Office Market Amid Shaky Life Sciences Demand"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/","name":"CommercialSearch","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/44a8a1fa2b4207afba1c2bb0ef1e2d80","name":"Matthew Preston","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a6960d93eec870b7a4ba3e017196ffd2493e00eae6d176dceb85ed1d0847184?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6a6960d93eec870b7a4ba3e017196ffd2493e00eae6d176dceb85ed1d0847184?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Matthew Preston"},"description":"Matthew has covered commercial real estate for CommercialCafe since 2022. He focuses on the office and industrial sectors, reporting on leasing, development, and investment across national markets and individual submarkets. His work draws on data and original research. He also writes about demographic shifts and urban innovation in U.S. cities. The New York Times, The Real Deal, Bisnow, The Business Journals, and Yahoo Finance have cited his reporting.","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/author\/matthew-preston\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Boston-Office.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4637"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4644,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions\/4644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}