One Lincoln is located at the southern edge of the financial district, near South Station. The building was the first speculative office building developed downtown since the late 1980s. It was originally approved in 1990 when it was to be the first downtown office building to be developed through the city's Parcel-to-Parcel Linkage Program which included the investment and participation of a group of city-designated local minority partners, Columbia Plaza Associates, a group of local Asian American, African American and Hispanic investors. But because of the downturn in the real estate market in the early 1990s, the project was put on hold.

As the market recovered and the city's vacancy rate plummeted from 20% in 1992 to under 3% by 1999, The Gale Company, backed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds and The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio entered into a development joint venture with Columbia Plaza Associates. After completing the design, approval and permitting work for the project, construction began on the $350-million project in April 2000.

The project is contributing over $15 million in linkage payments to a number of community groups and initiatives addressing affordable housing, jobs and job training, minority business enterprises and childcare programs.