Owen Thomas and Douglas Linde

Boston Properties marked its 50th anniversary in 2020 with a resilient year, positioning the largest publicly traded owner of Class A office properties for future success amid pandemic-spawned headwinds for the sector.

One year after the global health crisis sparked unknowns about future work-from-home trends, the Boston-based real estate investment trust reported it is collecting 99 percent of office rent. It ended 2020 with 90.1 percent occupancy across a number of office assets nationally and is bullish on strong future leasing activity, thanks to active recent leasing and tour activity.

The firm now has five office projects under development comprising 5.3 million square feet, and $2 billion in investment that are 86 percent pre-leased. It also recently launched four additional redevelopment and development projects focused on life sciences totaling 920,000 square feet, adding to an existing 3.3 million square feet of properties leased to the growing sector.

“We are fortunate to have millions of square feet of developable land and properties in the two largest life science clusters in the U.S. — Boston/suburban Boston and South San Francisco, Calif. — where life sciences/lab demand continues to outpace supply,” Owen Thomas said. “We are confident that all projects in our development pipeline will add to our long-term earnings growth.”

In New York, Boston Properties has started the city’s land use review for 343 Madison Avenue, a development the REIT says will provide “world-class office space” and also serve as a catalyst for transit capital improvements in Midtown East. The company is also investing heavily in existing Manhattan real estate assets, opening The Hugh restaurant at 601 Lexington Avenue, and new amenities, such as a flexible conferencing space at the GM Building.

“We continue to focus on developing, owning, and managing the best properties in the most dynamic markets in the United States, and we believe in the long-term health and desirability of our coastal gateway markets,” Thomas said. “The clustering of knowledge workers and high barriers to entry make Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., the most sought-after office markets in the country.”—A.C.