Downtown Crossing Offices Proposed for Residential Conversion

An affiliate of real estate firm Synergy has filed an application to turn an 11-story building at 294 Washington St., immediately next to Old South Meeting House in Downtown Crossing, into 255 apartments use while keeping the existing ground-floor retail. The Boston Business Journal reported that it is the largest project to seek city tax incentives under Boston’s office-to-residential conversion program.

It is also the first such project in Boston involving Synergy, which otherwise has been known primarily for acquiring office buildings at significant discounts in the past few years and investing in new amenities. The firm has spoken in support of the conversion program, which Mayor Michelle Wu launched in 2023.

The site sits at a highly visible spot on the northern end of Downtown Crossing. The building, which dates to the early 1900s and wraps around the meeting house to Milk Street, is described in permitting applications as “predominantly vacant.”

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 16-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 7-10 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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