State Street weighing move to Seaport

State Street Corp. is pursuing a deal to build a 500,000-square-foot office building in Boston’s Seaport District, a move that would bring another major company to the city’s rapidly growing waterfront, according to a source briefed on the deal.

The financial services giant would build the new offices at Channel Center, a 7-acre office and retail complex off Congress Street in the Fort Point neighborhood. The owner of the property, Commonwealth Ventures, has rights to develop 751,000 square feet of additional office and residential space on three unoccupied parcels in the complex.

A spokeswoman for State Street declined to comment last night. Executives with Commonwealth Ventures could not be reached.

The construction of a new office complex in the Seaport District would be another huge boost for the area, which has been branded the Innovation District by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The district has attracted 90 new businesses in the past two years, and continues to generate interest from a broad range of companies. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. is building a pair of large office buildings nearby at Fan Pier, one of the largest privately funded construction projects in the country.

A new State Street building would also add considerable momentum to the overall real estate construction market in Boston, which all but died out during the recent economic downturn.

Although it is not known what shape and height the State Street building would be, by comparison, the first office building at Fan Pier, One Marina Park Drive, is also 500,000 square feet and is more than 18 stories.

State Street currently occupies office space in prominent commercial buildings across Boston and has several leases expiring in 2014. The company has offices at Copley Place, the Prudential Building, and the John Hancock Tower in the Back Bay; it also has offices at Lafayette Corporate Center in the Financial District.

Its lease at its namesake headquarters building at One Lincoln Street expires in 2023.

News of the company’s potential relocation to Channel Center was first reported by the commercial real estate publication The Real Reporter.

Commonwealth Ventures purchased Channel Center in 2007 from Beacon Capital Partners for $21.5 million. Beacon had previously redeveloped about 30 percent of the property, which is a 16-building portfolio of the old Boston Wharf Co. complex, but the firm abandoned the effort when the area’s renaissance proved slower than expected.

In recent years, Commonwealth Ventures has renovated about 250,000 square feet of office and retail space in the complex, while the Fort Point area has continued to improve with the development of new residences and retail storefronts.

State Street would join Fidelity Investments and Manulife Financial as the major financial companies on the waterfront, which also has attracted a range of technology and communications businesses.