KKR Inks Big Lease for Boston Expansion

One of the world’s top investment firms is demonstrating a belief in Boston, signing a deal to expand its presence in the city.

KKR announced it signed a 15-year lease for nearly 133,000 square feet at Two International Place, a Financial District skyscraper owned by the Chiofaro Company. Financial terms of the lease at the property were not disclosed.

KKR’s relocation to the building comes after the owners invested $100 million in renovating the 1.8 million-square-foot property. Chiofaro and PGIM Real Estate upgraded the building’s lobbies and entrances and transformed a 25,000-square-foot amenity suite.

Representatives from Jones Lang LaSalle, Newmark and Cushman & Wakefield all played a part in brokering the lease.

“We are excited to establish our new Boston office at International Place and intend to grow this location over time to help us deliver on the firm’s future goals,” KKR chief operating officer Ryan Stork said in a statement.

KKR currently occupies space at 20 Guest Street in Brighton, according to Bisnow. The investment firm reportedly occupied 46,000 square feet there as of 2017, meaning the firm is nearly tripling its footprint in the area.

Back in 2023, the company increased its footprint by 220,000 square feet at Related Companies’ 30 Hudson Yards in Manhattan, tacking on the space to an existing 300,000-square-foot footprint.

Two International Place was left with a major vacancy last year when another investment firm, Eaton Vance, left behind 340,000 square feet to move to One Post Office Square.

In the second quarter, the office vacancy rate in Boston dropped to 21.2 percent, according to JLL, representing the fourth consecutive quarterly decline for the benchmark metric.

Several weeks ago, toy maker Hasbro announced it would move its headquarters from Rhode Island to 400 Summer Street in Boston’s Seaport District, taking seven floors across 265,000 square feet in the lab-and-office building. Once a stretch of parking lots, the district today hosts offices for Amazon, Fidelity, BCG, MassMutual and others.