The National Fire Protection Association is preparing to leave Quincy, putting its longtime Batterymarch Park campus on the market in a move that could open the door to new housing in the office park. The four-building, 528,540-square-foot campus sits on nearly 50 acres in West Quincy, and brokers marketing the property say existing zoning already allows for multifamily housing with City Council approval through a special permit.
A Longtime Anchor Tenant Heads for the Exits
NFPA owns and manages Batterymarch Park and is headquartered at 1 Batterymarch Park. The organization's planned departure from the city was reported by The Patriot Ledger, which also reports that the campus is being marketed for sale. JLL has been exclusively retained to handle the sale, per a listing posted by the brokerage.
The campus itself is a substantial piece of real estate: four buildings totaling 528,540 square feet, currently 71% occupied across 36 tenants, with a weighted average lease term of 2.4 years, the listing states. Amenities on site include a conference center, food service, a fitness facility, MBTA shuttle service, and ample parking, all packaged within roughly 15 minutes of Boston.
Zoning Already Opens a Path to Apartments
What makes the listing notable beyond NFPA's exit is the zoning angle the marketing materials spotlight: existing rules at Batterymarch Park would allow multifamily housing if a developer secured a special permit from the Quincy City Council, according to the same JLL listing. The listing highlights housing as a potential use for the site. NFPA has accepted an offer and expects to finalize the sale by year-end; the sale price has not been disclosed.
That zoning flexibility lands amid a broader reckoning for suburban office parks across eastern Massachusetts. Persistently high vacancy in these parks is prompting a wave of proposals to convert underused office space into housing, as reported by Banker & Tradesman. The Batterymarch Park listing also highlights multifamily housing as a potential use for the site.
Crown Colony Offers a Template Nearby
Quincy has already seen this playbook unfold elsewhere. At Crown Colony Park, which the city rezoned last year to encourage reinvestment, Banker & Tradesman reports that a 315-unit, age-restricted development is planned for 1600 Crown Colony Drive, replacing a 237,000-square-foot office building completed in 1999 that was most recently occupied by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Atlantic Management acquired that property in June 2025 for $11 million, the outlet's reporting notes, giving Quincy officials and developers a recent precedent for converting aging office parks into residential projects.
Whether Batterymarch Park follows a similar path remains to be seen. The campus's 2.4-year weighted average lease term offers a local measure of its office-market position. For now, the campus remains an active office property with dozens of tenants, even as its owner prepares to leave and its next chapter stays unwritten.
