Work Advances at Vertex’s Future Fan Pier Headquarters

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Work on the Eleven Fan Pier Boulevard, one of the 18-story towers at the Fan Pier development site, reached a milestone recently when iron workers raised the final beam to complete the building’s structural framework. To celebrate the event, the beam was signed by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Fallon Company CEO Joseph F. Fallon, and Vertex Chair, President and CEO Dr. Jeff Leiden. Representatives of Turner Construction and more than 100 members of Boston Iron Workers Union Local No. 7 also autographed the symbolic beam.

The Fallon Company, the developer behind the 21-acre mixed-use Fan Pier site encompassing eight office towers, broke ground on Eleven Fan Pier Boulevard in June 2011. According to a recent press statement released by the company, global biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals will occupy around 1.1 million square feet in two of the Fan Pier towers by the end of 2013, which is the projected completion date.

Eleven Fan Pier Boulevard (Vertex Building B) was designed by Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects; when completed, the building will feature floor-to-ceiling green glass and an outdoor terrace on the 7^th floor. Tsoi/Kobus Associates of Cambridge, MA, designed 50 Northern Avenue (Vertex Building A) which will also reach 18 stories offering panoramic views of the waterfront and city skyline. The two towers will total nearly 1.1 million square feet of office, research and lab space, 60,000 square feet of ground floor restaurant and retail space, and an underground parking garage.

According to a forecast market report by Marcus & Millichap, the South Boston Waterfront is becoming the epicenter of economic growth thanks to pharmaceutical companies such as Vertex, whose projected relocation to the new headquarters has already generated 1,000 local construction jobs.

Image courtesy of Fan Pier Development; chart courtesy of Marcus & Millichap.