FBI Director James Comey and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker were among guests celebrating the completion of the agency’s new Boston Field Office in Chelsea, Massachusetts. It is the sixth such field office that The Molasky Group of Companies has had the privilege to work on for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. General Services Adminstration (GSA) and the first for its Boston-based development partner, ACS Development.
“We are very proud to deliver this field office to the FBI. It provides a state-of-the-art environment which is an invaluable tool for today’s law enforcement agency, personnel and partners,” says Matt Connolly, senior vice president of development for The Molasky Group and head of the company’s Atlanta office and national government development market.
The 268,000 square-foot building will house a new regional computer forensics lab starting this spring, Special Agent in Charge Harold Shaw told attendees, saying the new technology will be a “force multiplier.”
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, who attended the event, said the computer lab’s capability in fraud investigations and other cyber crimes will aid the Boston Police Department in its investigations.
“This will do a lot of great things for not only Boston and the state but New England,” says Evans. The Boston FBI Division serves Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
The new headquarters relocated the FBI from its downtown Boston offices to the neighboring city of Chelsea, where the eight-story building is set right across the street from the future location for the city’s commuter rail station, which is under construction.
Shaw said it is the first time the headquarters has been located outside of Boston and it is the first time the Boston FBI has had a standalone building.
“It provides an environment that more accurately reflects the professionalism of our workforce,” Shaw said. He said the new building is home to more than 600 employees and task force members overseeing 10 satellite offices.
Gov. Charlie Baker, who was on hand for the event, said the new facility is a “very big deal to us” and credited his secretary of Housing and Economic Development, former Chelsea City Manager Jay Ash, with working on the project.
Anthony Simboli, chairman of the developer ACS Development Corporation, said it had “taken ten years to bring the project to fruition.”
The space will be leased to the FBI for 20 years, according to the General Services Administration, which listed construction cost at $100 million.. Construction of the new headquarters was substantially completed in October 2016, according to the GSA.
GSA Public Building Service Commissioner Norman Dong said the new facility is almost twice as large as the old location, offering a flexible layout and “will serve as a model for FBI workplaces for generations.”
Noting the added security and “natural light” in the new building, Comey gave a paean to the law enforcement officers who populate it, saying they “light it from within.”
“When you choose to do the work that is done in this building you choose a different way to live,” said Comey, who said those who work out of the FBI headquarters chose hard work with “moral content.”
The Molasky Group is a Las Vegas-based real estate development company with more than 65 years of experience building office, commercial, retail, residential, medical & healthcare, corrections and aviation properties. More information is available at molaskyco.com