Eaton Vance seals deal to move to Post Office Square

The front door of One Post Office Square last fall when word first emerged that Eaton Vance was planning a move to the tower, which is undergoing a massive renovation.Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff

Boston-based investment management firm Eaton Vance, through its parent company, has officially leased 282,770 square feet at the One Post Office Square tower in downtown Boston.

The headquarters lease deal has been in the works for the past year, with Eaton Vance planning a move from its nearby headquarters at International Place. The 42-story One Post Office Square has been undergoing a renovation to convert the formerly concrete tower into a glass façade with upgraded amenities.

The lease, for floors 14 through 21, was recorded Wednesday in Suffolk County by Morgan Stanley Services Group Inc. Morgan Stanley acquired Eaton Vance in late 2020 in a cash and stock deal valued at $7 billion.

An Eaton Vance spokesperson confirmed the deal Thursday, saying the firm evaluated a wide range of options, including staying in its current office or moving to new or renovated buildings. A company executive previously told The Boston Globe that a lease at One PO Square would include customizable space for its 1,200 employees, including fewer executive offices.

“We would have experienced pretty expensive turnover if we were to make a major move. [And] we need to attract talent,” Dan Cataldo, Eaton Vance’s chief administrative officer, told the Globe last year. “We felt being down in the Financial District was important to doing that. That’s where our employees want to be.”

Eaton Vance isn’t the only investment management firm to have extended its presence in downtown Boston following the COVID-19 pandemic. Wellington Management last year grew its lease in the Atlantic Wharf office tower, leasing 524,000 square feet across 22 floors in the 31-story building. Also in 2021, Loomis Sayles & Co. extended its lease at One Financial Center, albeit a smaller office than it previously occupied.

The deal is the latest in a string of large leases in new, or substantially renovated, towers downtown in recent months — including Winthrop Center and One Congress — which have retained their appeal to blue-chip tenants even as the market for older and smaller office buildings has struggled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and growing acceptance of remote work.

The Eaton Vance lease begins in March 2024 and runs through 2040, with an option to extend the lease for up to 15 years.