JPMorgan Nears Blockbuster South Station Tower Lease

JPMorgan Chase is close to becoming the anchor tenant of Boston’s newest trophy tower — and a new addition to the skyline.

The bank is negotiating a roughly 250,000-square-foot lease at South Station Tower, Bloomberg reported. The move would plant one of the country’s biggest financial institutions in the city’s busiest transit hub and give the project developed by Hines, which has struggled to fill tenants, a major credibility boost.

The pending deal surfaced when the bank formally applied to slap its name on the building. JPMorgan wants 12-foot letters perched more than 650 feet above downtown, a level of corporate branding Boston has largely resisted with a few key exceptions.

The city granted provisional design approval in October, though the bank still needs a building permit. In a test run conducted on Halloween, officials let JPMorgan mount a few sample letters — specifically “ProM” — to keep the mockup anonymous to passersby.

If the lease is finalized, JPMorgan would become the largest tenant in Hines’ 51-story skyscraper, which opened in September after years of delays and a brutalized office market.

The tower debuted with plenty of buzz, but few commitments, as the city’s downtown vacancy sits around 19 percent, more than double pre-pandemic levels, according to CBRE. Citadel has signed on for 11,000 square feet on the top floor, and law firm Jones Day and insurer FM have signed on, but the developer has yet to announce leases for most of the space.

The tower’s hybrid form adds another twist. Above the offices sit 166 condos branded by Ritz-Carlton, potentially putting luxury homeowners beneath a giant JPMorgan nameplate. Still, for Hines, landing the bank would provide the kind of blue-chip footing office towers increasingly need to weather a sluggish leasing climate.

JPMorgan’s bid for a spot in the Boston skyline follows the firm making waves in Manhattan. It unveiled its multibillion-dollar headquarters earlier this year, and is adding to its Midtown footprint with a 60,000-square-foot sublease at 390 Madison and lease extensions at 237 Park Avenue and 5 Manhattan West.

A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment to the outlet.

— Holden Walter-Warner