The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) today announced that it has selected Manulife Financial to develop parcel F-1, the one and a half acre parcel located on D Street in the Commonwealth Flats area of South Boston. Manulife Financial is Canada's largest life insurance company and plans to develop the site for office space to house its U.S. headquarters.

With its headquarters in Boston, Manulife will bring 900 new jobs to the area and plans to occupy the entire building with its estimated 1,500 employees. Construction on Parcel F-1 may begin as early as next summer with planned completion scheduled for 2003.

"Manulife Financial's development plans were impressive," said Lowell Richards, Massport's chief development officer. "Their proposal contained unique factors which made it especially attractive to us and we're extremely pleased to team up with this first-rate firm on such an important project."

Manulife was one of six developers who responded to Massport's Requests for Proposal in June of this year. Manulife plans to build and finance the project from its own corporate funds and will hire the world renowned architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP as their primary designer and Boston based Stull and Lee Inc. as an associate architect. The building will feature 470,000 square feet of class A office space with ground level retail and below grade parking.

In an effort to promote mixed use development in this area, and consistent with the street pattern changes proposed in the City of Boston's Public Realm Plan, Massport designated Parcel F-1 for office use and the adjacent Parcel F-2 for hotel development. Both parcels are located in the Commonwealth Flats Designated Area (CFDA) of the South Boston waterfront. The Parcel F-1 project will anchor additional development in the east of D Street area consistent with the CFDA draft environmental report and will compliment the planned Parcel F-2 hotel.

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