Hasbro Leaves Rhode Island, Picks Boston Seaport for HQ

Hasbro is leaving its century-long home in Pawtucket for the Seaport, adding another marquee name to Boston’s roster of corporate trophies.

The toy giant said Monday it will move its headquarters to 400 Summer Street, taking seven floors across 265,000 square feet in the lab-and-office building, the Boston Business Journal reported. At least 700 employees are expected to relocate.

The move caps a year-long search that began with backchannel talks between Hasbro execs and Massachusetts officials.

In the end, Hasbro opted for a building better known for biotech tenants than board games: WS Development’s 580,000-square-foot Seaport property, much of which had been leased to Foundation Medicine before it put a large block on the sublease market.

Hasbro framed the shift as strategic. CEO Chris Cocks said Boston offers access to a “thriving business community, deep academic partnerships and cultural vibrancy.” The HQ will serve as the center for its corporate functions as well as its toys, board games and licensing businesses, while gaming and digital operations remain in the Seattle area.

The relocation is another win for Boston, which has lured multiple companies from elsewhere in New England in recent years. GE decamped from Fairfield in 2016, Alexion Pharmaceuticals left New Haven in 2017 and Lego announced its own Connecticut-to-Boston move earlier this year. Closer to home, firms like Dynatrace, PTC and EMD Serono have all shifted offices from the suburbs to downtown.

For Rhode Island, the loss stings. Hasbro has been a point of civic pride in Pawtucket, where its name provided the cache of brands like Monopoly, My Little Pony and Play-Doh. State leaders fought to keep the company, offering prime Providence land for $1 and other incentives, but Boston sealed the deal with up to $14 million in tax credits.

The departure follows other blows to Pawtucket, including the PawSox’s move to Worcester and the closure of Memorial Hospital.

The relocation also underscores the Seaport’s transformation. Once a stretch of parking lots, the district today hosts offices for Amazon, Fidelity, BCG, MassMutual and others.

The RMR Group recently locked in a $1 billion refinancing on Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Boston Seaport headquarters, shoring up the property’s capital stack for the next half-decade.

— Holden Walter-Warner