Everything is awesome for Lego employees who want to live closer to Boston. For everyone else, the next few years may be as painful as stepping on one of the toys.
Lego announced it will move its corporate offices from Enfield, Connecticut, to Boston by 2026. The relocation will happen in phases, beginning in mid-2025 and concluding by the end of the following year.
Lego promised relocation assistance for the 740 employees who have worked out of 100 Print Shop Road, which Lego leases from Winstanley Enterprises, according to MassLive. Those who don’t want to relocate will receive financial support and job placement assistance.
Skip Kodak, president of the company’s American operations, cited quality of life, a skilled workforce and proximity to major academic institutions and reasons behind the move. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont noted the company has a partnership with MIT, citing it as a motivating factor in the relocation, according to the Hartford Courant.
While Lego has an education office in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, the company doesn’t have a space picked out for the relocation yet. That search will take place in central Boston.
Enfield has hosted an office for the company since 1975. Lego also had a factory and a warehouse in Enfield, but those shuttered years ago. In June, the company announced its plan to build a $1 billion carbon-neutral manufacturing facility in Virginia — construction is slated to start in April.
The Denmark-based toy manufacturer employs 2,600 people in the United States.
State and local officials expressed disappointment with Lego’s move out of Enfield. Town Manager Ellen Zoppo-Sassu compared it to “walking across a room full of Legos barefoot,” according to NBC Connecticut.
This is the second significant corporate departure from Connecticut in as many weeks. Last week, Campbell Soup announced it would close its 105,000-square-foot office in Norwalk. It is consolidating its office-based employees to Camden, where its headquarters are.