A six-story, roughly 100,000-square-foot building on Boston’s waterfront at 400 Atlantic Ave., vacant since law firm Goulston & Storrs relocated, is officially on the block. The property’s owner had filed plans earlier this year to turn it into a boutique hotel, but that proposal is now taking a back seat while the building is shopped to hotel, residential and office buyers.
The Luxembourg-based family office that bought the building in 2024 had floated a 113-room hotel concept with suites and waterfront dining. Now, instead of committing to one path, the group is testing the market to see who bites.
Listing hits the market
According to Bisnow, JAJ Investment Group has hired CBRE’s Boston capital markets team to handle the sale. Marketing materials pitch the roughly 100,000-square-foot building as a “generational value-add opportunity,” offered free and clear of existing debt and positioned as suitable for hotel, residential or office redevelopment.
The six-story “jewel-box” structure dates back to 1890 and was renovated in 1984. Over the decades it has housed engravers, printers and, most recently, Goulston & Storrs, which moved out to One Post Office Square in 2023.
What the proposal looked like
City filings posted on the Boston Planning Department website show JAJ’s hotel concept would have carved the building into roughly 113 guest rooms, including about 20 suites, plus about 7,000 square feet of restaurant and bar space opening directly onto the Harborwalk.
Banker & Tradesman reported that the project team had been eyeing a December construction start, but city approval has not yet been secured, and the sale listing suggests all options are now in play.
Why developers are shifting to hotels
Investors have been increasingly drawn to hotel conversions as downtown office demand lags while high-end lodging continues to perform, the Boston Globe reported. JAJ, the Luxembourg-based family office behind the 400 Atlantic proposal, has experience converting properties to hospitality uses in Europe.
The group paid roughly $30 million for the waterfront building in 2024, according to reporting from The Real Deal and other local business outlets.
Next steps and public access
Bisnow notes that CBRE’s materials say the site is exempt from the state’s Chapter 91 waterfront law, although the owner is expected to maintain a roughly 15-foot public walkway along the water.
Chapter 91 governs public access and waterfront development in Massachusetts, according to the state’s Office of Coastal Zone Management (Mass.gov), and any buyer that advances a redevelopment would need to work through permitting with city planners.
For now, the listing keeps several outcomes in play. A buyer could revive the proposed boutique hotel conversion, rework the plan into residential units, or lean back into office use. Which path wins out will come down to financing, construction costs and how much appetite a future owner has for navigating Boston’s approval process.
