A 32-story office tower in the heart of Boston's Financial District is headed to the auction block next month, after Wells Fargo moved to foreclose on 100 Summer St. An auction is scheduled for Oct. 20 at 2 p.m., with the building currently listed as 72 percent leased even as its owner, Rockpoint Group, faces the loss of one of downtown Boston's largest office properties.
Wells Fargo provided Rockpoint Group with a $470 million mortgage in October 2019 when the private equity firm acquired the 1.1 million-square-foot tower, according to Banker & Tradesman. The property, developed in 1980 by Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, sits among the taller fixtures of the district and is described on its own building website as a 32-story, 1.1 million-square-foot tower. As reported by Bisnow, the foreclosure marks another blow for a downtown office market that has struggled to fully recover.
The building isn't without paying tenants. The Massachusetts Trial Court leased more than 79,000 square feet across three floors at 100 Summer St. for a 10-year term, with a base rent of $64.77 per square foot, the same Banker & Tradesman report notes. That government lease offers a measure of stability even as the tower's ownership situation unravels.
A Bigger Auction Than Last Year's One Lincoln Sale
The scale of the 100 Summer St. foreclosure stands out. The auction is described as the largest in over a decade, eclipsing last year's foreclosure of another Financial District property, the 1.1 million-square-foot One Lincoln, per the same account from Banker & Tradesman. That comparison underscores just how significant this sale could be for a market still working through distressed office assets.
One Lincoln, a 1.1 million-square-foot, 36-story building according to NBC Boston, was sold to its lender for $400 million at a foreclosure auction on March 21, 2025, after MSD Partners submitted the only bid at that public auction, Banker & Tradesman reported separately. Fortis Property Group had bought the newly completed tower in 2006 for $889 million, and a 2022 refinancing had included $200 million for major renovations and upgraded amenities before the property still ended up in foreclosure. Even after HarbourVest Partners agreed to lease 250,000 square feet, One Lincoln remained less than half leased, according to a CoStar report.
Vacancy Pressures Persist Downtown
Estimates of Boston's office vacancy vary depending on the source and time period. Downtown vacancy stood at 18.1 percent in the fourth quarter according to CBRE, as cited by Bisnow. CoStar data cited separately put the city's vacancy rate at a record-high roughly 14 percent as of March 2025.
That broader strain has shown up in other recent Boston sales. A five-story, roughly 98,000-square-foot office and retail building at 99 Bedford Street near South Station sold at auction for $19 million, about 63 percent below its 2019 purchase price, according to Boston Real Estate Times.
What Happens Next
For now, the fate of 100 Summer St. rests on what happens at the Oct. 20 auction. The dossier of public reporting does not yet indicate who might bid, what price the tower could fetch, or whether Rockpoint Group will retain any stake in the property once the process concludes. Given the One Lincoln precedent, where the lender ended up as the sole bidder and effectively took the building back, downtown Boston's office market will be watching closely to see whether history repeats itself at 100 Summer St.
