State Street Corporation To Vacate New York Office

USA – Financial services provider State Street Corporation has corroborated on Monday that it will vacate its 2 offices in midtown Manhattan in New York City, reported The Boston Globe on Monday evening (16 August, SGT).

The company informed its around 500 staff in New York about the closure in May. It gave them the choice of working from home (WFH), at one of its satellite offices in Connecticut and New Jersey, or a coworking space taken up by State Street Corporation in Manhattan.

State Street Corporation is one of several major financial institutions reviewing their office footprint in New York City, which is considered as the country’s financial capital.

“Like most other companies, we have seen our employees adapt quickly to working remotely,” stated the company in a press release.

“We intend to capture and adopt the new ways of working that have arisen during the COVID crisis so that we make the improvements and make adjustments as needed.”

Nonetheless, State Street Corporation said it hasn’t changed its plans to occupy a 500,000 sq ft workplace that is presently under construction at the One Congress office building in Boston.

In 2019, the company announced that it had signed a 15-year lease for the bottom half of the 600ft tower, which is expected to be completed by 2023. It also mentioned several times that it plans to relocate when the commercial property opens, and a company spokesperson reaffirmed those plans on Monday.

With an overall space of 3 million sq ft, One Congress is among several huge office buildings being built in downtown Boston. But it’s the only one that announced a major tenant after the COVID-19 pandemic forced companies to review their office space requirements. Still, real estate agents said that they have observed an uptick in market activity over the past few months.

Aside from that, State Street Corporation has been reducing expenses in recent years by slashing its office space and retrenching employees. The firm has also sublet some workspace at its existing headquarters at One Lincoln Street in Boston, Massachusetts.

While the company plans to allow its workers to return to the office on hybrid basis in September, it announced that staff working in its US offices will be required to be inoculated against COVID-19 as of 13 September.