Boston Properties buys N.E.’s tallest building

BOSTON – Boston Properties Inc. agreed to buy the city’s John Hancock Tower, New England’s tallest building, for $930 million as the office landlord seeks to expand, Bloomberg News reported.
The company will pay $289.5 million in cash for the 62-story tower and assume about $640.5 million in debt, according to a statement from the real estate investment trust. Boston Properties already owns the Prudential Center in the city’s Back Bay area, where it has its corporate headquarters.
“We’ll have a dominant position in the Back Bay, which we think is the best long-term value in terms of a location,” Chairman and CEO Mortimer Zuckerman said. “And this is one of the iconic buildings of Boston, one of the very few. So it’s right in our sweet spot.”
The deal adds another trophy to a collection that already includes, besides the Prudential Center, New York’s General Motors Building and 601 Lexington Ave., the slant-topped skyscraper known until last year as Citigroup Center. Zuckerman told analysts on a conference call in July that the company is focused on finding buying opportunities.
In September, Boston Properties closed on the $275 million acquisition of 510 Madison Ave., a newly built 350,000-square-foot Manhattan tower, from an affiliate of developer Harry Macklowe, who had to sell properties after taking on too much debt. &#8226