03.17.2025

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Fire sale: In downtown Boston, half-empty office buildings selling for huge markdowns are starting to pile up

We are five years into the pandemic-fueled shift to remote work which emptied towers and office buildings across the country.

And now the you-know-what is finally hitting the fan in downtown Boston.

The only question is which tower or office building will be next up on the auction block, with One Lincoln, once Boston’s most valuable sky-rise, set to be sold off later this week.

Will it be the literally half-empty 99 High St.? Owned by an affiliate of TIAA, the 32-story Keystone Building has been on the market since last summer, with the owners seeking the same price they bought it for a decade ago.

99 High St.

Or will the next one up be 75-101 Federal St.? The two interconnected office buildings and their 800,000 square feet of space are being put on the market by their owner “in partnership with Wells Fargo,” as The Boston Globe reports.

Um, when the lender is involved in the planned sale of a major office building, that’s never a good sign.

Even if one or both towers manage to dodge the auction block, if the recent sale of 399 Washington St. is any indication, they are likely to take a big haircut.

The one-time home of Barnes & Noble in Downtown Crossing fetched just $13 million when it sold recently, down from $33 million in 2017.

All of which is bad news for Boston, which is faced with the looming loss of hundreds of millions in tax revenue over the next few years as the downtown office market, long a cash cow, hits the skids.

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