Raytheon's 150,000-SF HQ Completed

In September, 2002, Raytheon sold its longtime headquarters in Lexington, MA, which totaled 361,000 sf, to a joint venture of Atlantic Management of Framingham, MA, Mohawk Partners of Concord, MA and Peabody Global Real Estate Partners of New York. The new 150,000-sf facility will stand on leased land about three miles from the company's former home.

Raytheon went through a series of layoffs around the time it decided to relocate its facilities, but a spokesperson told GlobeSt.com at the time that the relocation had nothing to do with that. She said the new facility will accommodate the majority of the company's corporate staff, and employees who do not relocate to the new headquarters will move to other facilities in the state. She also emphasized that the company was looking to move to more modern facilities that would be more efficient and could ultimately lower costs of operations. Raytheon took a long-term lease on the 10-acre parcel.

The Waltham Woods Corporate Center took six years to complete at a cost of over $120 million and encompasses four individual buildings. Originally working with the Massachusetts Medical Society as a joint-venture partner, Leggat McCall acquired the land, master planned the park, and subsequently developed two speculative office buildings on half of the land and assisted the Massachusetts Medical Society in building new headquarters on a third site. Work on the Raytheon headquarters, at 870 Winter St, began in 2002 as a build-to-suit.

"There are very few sites in the area that allow for quality buildings to be established in a dramatic wooded area so close to Route 128 in Waltham," says Eric Sheffels, president and CEO of Leggat McCall Properties.