Boston’s old No Name Restaurant site is about to trade fried fish and paper cups for marine-tech startups, as Massport turns the vacant Fish Pier space into a waterfront research and development facility. The incubator is expected to open in 18 to 24 months.
The Massachusetts Port Authority is converting the former restaurant site into a home for marine technology companies, with the Boston Business Journal reporting that the project will support research, testing and startup development. The effort is part of Massport’s Blue Edge initiative, a broader push to put more innovation directly on Boston’s working waterfront.
This is not just another office incubator with a harbor view. Massport’s plans call for waterfront workspace and connections to a floating dock, allowing companies to develop and test marine technologies near the boats, processors and maritime businesses already operating at the pier, according to the authority’s Blue Edge update.
From Fried Fish To Floating Docks
The No Name Restaurant opened on the Fish Pier in 1917 and closed at the end of 2019 after more than a century in business. As Eater Boston noted at the time, the restaurant became a landmark for fishermen, seafood workers and generations of Boston diners.
Massport’s FY26-FY30 capital plan lists the former No Name conversion as a $6.75 million project, with the description pairing “new blue tech space” with seafood processing. That combination suggests the authority is trying to add a new layer of marine innovation without turning the Fish Pier into a glassy, disconnected tech campus.
Boston’s Blue Economy Push Is Getting Concrete
The project also arrives as the Port of Boston builds out a formal identity around the so-called blue economy, which includes marine robotics, ocean sensors, sustainable seafood and climate-focused waterfront technology. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative lists the Port of Boston as a designated Blue Economy TechHub led by Massport.
Boston already has some blue-tech infrastructure, including BlueSwell, an ocean-focused startup incubator launched by SeaAhead and the New England Aquarium. That program has backed companies working on ocean sustainability, maritime decarbonization, offshore energy, marine pollution and resilient waterfronts, according to the New England Aquarium.
For the Fish Pier, the timeline means the next act is still a little ways off. But when the doors finally open, the former No Name space could be serving a very different crowd: founders, engineers and researchers trying to build the future of the harbor from a place that has spent more than a century serving the people who work on it.
