Cloud computing company VMWare has leased nearly 38,000 square feet at Lafayette City Center, in the latest relocation of a Cambridge tech company to Boston’s Downtown Crossing.
VMWare will relocate 200 employees from Cambridge’s Kendall Square in September to the 615,000-square-foot office and retail building owned by The Abbey Group of Boston.
VMWare will occupy part of the second floor overlooking the corner of Washington Street and Avenue de Lafayette, said David Epstein, chief operating officer of The Abbey Group. The company has begun buildout of the space designed to emphasize the building’s high ceilings and open floor plans, he said.
Partners Healthcare will vacate 130,000 square feet on the first and second floors in the second half of 2018 and Abbey Group is preparing to market that space for future office tenants, Epstein said. It’s also in talks with potential tenants for 25,000 square feet of retail or restaurant space.
Palo Alto-based VMWare, which had $7 billion in 2016 revenues, last fall announced a partnership with former competitor Amazon Web Services to provide software to companies enabling them to store data off-site.
It becomes the second Cambridge tech company to recently relocate to Lafayette City Center, as the Downtown Crossing neighborhood continues to attract tech companies drawn by comparatively affordable office space with proximity to multiple public transit lines. Audio component manufacturer Sonos leased 170,000 square feet previously occupied by State Street Corp. in 2014.
JLL’s Tom O’Regan, Bill Barrack, Ben Coffin and Dan Cavanaugh represented The Abbey Group in the VMWare transaction.