Gillette Bets on Boston With $1B Southie HQ Plan

It was a close shave, but Gillette is staying put in South Boston, albeit in a different space.

The Procter & Gamble-owned razor brand plans to buy a South Boston development site and build a nearly $1 billion global headquarters and innovation center, anchoring its future along the Fort Point Channel, the company announced. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Gillette will purchase 232 A Street, a property owned by Breakthrough Properties — a joint venture between Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital — and construct a research and development hub for its grooming division. The project is poised to become the single largest investment Gillette has ever made in Boston.

The complex will house the company’s Grooming Headquarters and Technical Innovation Center, bringing together commercial operations and product development under one roof. The site is already permitted for a large life sciences-style R&D facility with ground-floor retail and publicly accessible open space.

The purchase of 232 A Street unlocks a package of public improvements tied to the site’s prior permitting. Plans call for roughly 1.5 acres of open space along the Fort Point Channel, including new sidewalks, bike lanes, a waterfront park and upgrades to the Harborwalk. The project also includes funding for public art and shuttle services.

Gillette framed the move as a long-term bet on Boston’s innovation ecosystem and its own roots in the city, where the company was founded more than 125 years ago. The headquarters project is part of a broader $1.5 billion investment across Massachusetts that also includes an advanced manufacturing facility in Andover and a sweeping redevelopment vision for the company’s sprawling South Boston campus.

The Andover component is already underway. Gillette broke ground last year on a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility designed to handle blade and razor production, packaging and direct-to-consumer fulfillment. As part of the shift, some manufacturing based in South Boston will relocate to Andover beginning this year.

For Boston, the move keeps hundreds of research and development jobs in the city while reinforcing South Boston’s evolution into a hub for tech and life sciences companies.

Gillette’s long-term plans could reshape even more of the waterfront. The company is separately advancing a master plan to redevelop its existing 31-acre South Boston campus, a process expected to incorporate housing and public space.