Converse Moving To New Boston HQs In '15, Will Receive Up To $10M In Tax Breaks

Converse President & CEO Jim Calhoun yesterday “officially acknowledged what has been reported for weeks: His company will move its world headquarters” to Lovejoy Wharf in Boston from North Andover, Mass., in ’15, according to Casey Ross of the BOSTON GLOBE. The $230M redevelopment of Lovejoy Wharf “will include a 187,000-square-foot office building for Converse, as well as an adjacent building with 100 residences.” Boston will “grant up to” $10M in tax breaks to the project. Boston Redevelopment Agency Exec Dir Peter Meade said that the full $10M “will only be granted” if Converse, the project’s main tenant, “retains the 400 employees it is bringing to the city for the project” (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/9). In Boston, Greg Turner reports Converse “recently signed a lease” for the office space “in a nine-story building” at Lovejoy Wharf. The company “also expects to open a retail store” (BOSTON HERALD, 1/9). In Portland, Allan Brettman cites a news release as saying that Converse’s move to downtown Boston “follows an extensive search for a new company headquarters in the greater Boston metropolitan area.” Converse VP/Global PR & Communications Terri Hines said that the company in its two-year search process “did not consider a move to Oregon, where its parent Nike is based” (Portland OREGONIAN, 1/9).

DC LEGAL: POLITICO’s Palmer & Tau report word has been “going around ... about K Streeters going in to pitch" Nike. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld “appears to be the first to clinch the deal.” Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld Policy Analyst Roger Murray, former legislative assistant to former U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), “registered to work on the miscellaneous tariffs bill” (POLITICO.com, 1/7).