Class A vs. Legacy Office: Why Massachusetts Tenants Are Choosing Buildings with Modern Tech Infrastructure

Class A vs. Legacy Office: Why Massachusetts Tenants Are Choosing Buildings with Modern Tech Infrastructure

3 minute read | Updated May 5, 2026

The headline numbers from Boston's office market tell a story of softness. Vacancy hit 17.5% at the start of 2025, with more than 17.75% of space available across the area including roughly 3.3 million square feet for sublease. WRA But headline numbers rarely tell the complete story, and in Greater Boston's office market right now, the complete story is considerably more interesting than the vacancy rate suggests.

The real story is a split market — and the split is widening.

Trophy office assets in Boston recorded positive net absorption in the first quarter of 2026, significantly outperforming the broader market. In contrast, Class A properties saw negative absorption, while Class B and C buildings posted an even steeper decline. This divergence highlights a growing divide as companies consolidate their footprints but invest more heavily in premium space to attract and retain employees. Bostonrealestatetimes

What separates the buildings winning tenants from the buildings losing them isn't location or square footage. Increasingly, it's technology infrastructure — and specifically, the experience a tenant's employees and visitors have from the moment they walk through the front door.

The Flight to Quality Is Real, and It's Accelerating

Big tenants aren't leaving Boston — they're thinking carefully about where and how much space they need, moving into nicer buildings with better amenities while reducing overall square footage. WRA This pattern has become one of the defining characteristics of the post-pandemic office market across Greater Boston: companies are making deliberate decisions to trade down in size and up in quality.

The average lease term in Boston rose to 81.4 months in the first quarter of 2026 — the highest level since 2019 — reflecting companies solidifying return-to-office policies and committing to physical workplaces after several years of uncertainty. Nearly 70% of leasing activity came from new deals, signaling renewed occupier confidence and a shift away from the short-term extensions that characterized earlier phases of the post-pandemic market. Bostonrealestatetimes

That renewed confidence is being channeled selectively. Buildings with hospitality-driven lifestyle amenities including wellness, exclusive lounge and meeting spaces, food and beverage options, and tech integrations are seeing strong demand, while commodity office stock continues to struggle. Synergy Boston The market has effectively divided into two categories: buildings that feel modern and managed, and buildings that don't. And the gap between those two categories is driving leasing decisions in ways that weren't true five years ago.

The Class B market saw a continued flight to quality in 2024, as tenants sought upgraded spaces with better amenities and more favorable lease terms — often opting to relocate rather than renew. Bradvisors That trend has carried through into 2025 and 2026 with no sign of reversing.

What "Modern" Actually Means in a Competitive Leasing Environment

The definition of a competitive Class A building has changed substantially. Technology infrastructure that enables seamless hybrid collaboration represents a defining quality characteristic. Buildings with dedicated platforms integrating access control, room booking, visitor management, and environmental monitoring provide measurable operational advantages over properties requiring tenants to implement these systems independently. CENTURY 21 Edge

This is an important shift in how the market thinks about building technology. A decade ago, a building directory was a finishing touch — a nice-to-have that signaled care and attention to detail. Today, it's part of an interconnected technology layer that tenants evaluate when they tour a building and that employees interact with every single day.

Think about what a tenant's experience looks like in a modern Class A building versus a legacy property. In the legacy building: a plastic-letter directory near the elevator bank that hasn't been updated since a tenant moved out eight months ago, a paper sign-in log at reception, a printed sheet taped outside the conference room with the week's schedule. In the modern building: a touchscreen directory in the lobby that shows real-time tenant listings and step-by-step wayfinding, a digital visitor management kiosk that pre-screens guests and issues credentials automatically, meeting room displays outside every conference door showing live availability and booking options — all managed from a single cloud platform.

Landlords and operators are adopting a hospitality mindset, expanding beyond physical amenity space and delivering detail-oriented service and curated experiences — including mobile apps and platforms that offer on-demand assistance and instant meeting room booking. Synergy Boston The digital directory and visitor management system aren't standalone products in this context. They're visible, daily expressions of that hospitality mindset — the parts of the building that every tenant and every visitor interacts with directly.

The Worcester Factor: A Market Where Tech Infrastructure Is a Real Differentiator

While Boston's flight to quality plays out within the city's established submarkets, a parallel story is unfolding 40 miles west. Worcester is one of the strongest growth markets in New England by multiple measures, with the city growing 14.1% from 2010 to 2020 — the fastest rate of any New England city over 100,000 residents. Realtor.com ranked it the number three housing market nationally for 2026, projecting 12.6% growth in home sales. The city has attracted more than $4 billion in recent public and private investment, including Polar Park, $161 million in state economic development grants, and a growing life sciences pipeline, supported by direct commuter rail access to Boston's Back Bay and South Station. Lornell Real Estate

Worcester's commercial office space market has evolved significantly, with Class A buildings downtown continuing to attract large organizations and healthcare tenants, while mixed-use developments and flexible co-working spaces grow in popularity. Modern, well-located office suites with strong amenities and tech infrastructure remain in high demand. Glickmankovago

For a business evaluating Worcester as a relocation or expansion market — whether moving from Boston to reduce occupancy costs, or a regional company growing into a larger footprint — the choice between a building with modern tech infrastructure and one without is not abstract. Commercial office space in Worcester ranges from $12 to $24 per square foot, significantly below Greater Boston levels Lornell Real Estate, which means landlords competing for quality tenants need to differentiate on something other than price. The experience inside the building — the lobby, the directory, the meeting room displays, the visitor check-in process — becomes a meaningful part of that differentiation.

The Landlord's Dilemma — and Opportunity

For owners of Class B and legacy properties in Boston, the math is uncomfortable. Landlords will need to invest capital, in a tough lending environment, into older Class A-minus and B-plus buildings to compete with higher-end buildings attracting the lion's share of tenant demand. WRA That investment can take many forms — fitout allowances, lobby renovations, amenity additions — but the visible technology layer is one of the most efficient places to make an impact per dollar spent.

A cloud-based digital directory, meeting room display system, and visitor management kiosk don't require structural renovation. They require wall space, a standard power outlet, and an internet connection. Digital building directory systems instantly modernize any space and enhance a property's appeal, attracting and retaining tenants by delivering a modern, intuitive experience from the moment visitors arrive. Itouchinc

For a landlord competing against a newer Class A building down the street, that modernization signal matters. When a prospective tenant tours two buildings in the same submarket on the same day and one has a crisp, interactive lobby directory with real-time wayfinding and the other has an outdated panel with a blank space where a former tenant used to be, the technology gap is felt immediately — even if neither party explicitly names it in the feedback.

The definition of Class A continuously evolves, requiring ongoing capital investment rather than one-time upgrades. Tenants should leverage current market conditions to secure quality space aligned with their workplace strategy, potentially trading reduced square footage for enhanced building quality. With concession packages remaining generous even in premium buildings, 2025 and 2026 present a unique window to secure favorable terms in top-tier properties. CENTURY 21 Edge

The Bottom Line for Massachusetts Property Owners and Managers

Whether you're managing a Financial District tower competing against new Seaport construction, a Back Bay mid-rise being undercut by sublease space, or a Worcester Class A building competing for tenants relocating from Boston, the same principle applies: the technology infrastructure inside your building is now part of your competitive position.

Since 1999, ITS Inc. has delivered turn-key solutions for building directories, digital signage, touchscreens, kiosks, and visitor management systems to organizations including CBRE, Jones Lang LaSalle, and BioMed Realty. Itouchinc The investment is modest relative to the leasing decisions it can influence — and in a Massachusetts market where the flight to quality is sorting winners from losers faster than at any point in recent memory, the lobby experience is one of the clearest signals of which category your building is in.

Ready to Upgrade Your Building's Technology Infrastructure?

Whether you're managing a Class A tower in Boston, a legacy office building competing for quality tenants, or a growing commercial property in Worcester or Central Massachusetts, ITS Inc. and the Navigo platform can help you modernize the technology layer that tenants and visitors experience every day.

Request a demo to see what the right solution looks like for your property.

FAQs

We're a landlord with a Class B building competing against newer Class A properties. Is investing in lobby technology actually going to move the needle for prospective tenants?

Yes — and it's one of the highest-visibility investments you can make per dollar spent relative to other capital improvements. When a prospective tenant tours your building, the lobby is the first thing they experience and one of the last things they forget. A touchscreen directory with real-time tenant listings and wayfinding, a professional visitor check-in kiosk, and meeting room displays outside conference doors all signal that the building is actively managed and technologically current. That signal matters in a market where tenants are touring multiple properties on the same day and making comparisons that aren't always articulated explicitly in feedback. You don't need a full lobby renovation to change that impression — you need the right technology installed and running.

Our building already has a newer static directory that was installed a few years ago. Why would we replace something that still works?

The issue isn't whether a static directory functions — it's whether it's doing the work your building needs it to do in today's leasing environment. A static directory can list tenants. It can't update itself when a tenant moves out and a new one moves in. It can't display step-by-step wayfinding to help a first-time visitor find Suite 804. It can't show meeting room availability, display building announcements, or connect to your visitor management system. In a market where tenants are explicitly choosing buildings based on the quality of the experience inside them, a directory that requires a physical update every time something changes is a liability — both operationally and in the impression it makes during tours and day-to-day use.

We manage office properties in Worcester and Central Massachusetts, not Boston. Is this technology relevant to our market, or is it more of a Boston trend?

It's directly relevant — and arguably more impactful in Worcester and Central Massachusetts than in Boston. In Boston's core submarkets, premium tech infrastructure is increasingly table stakes. In Worcester, it's still a meaningful differentiator. Class A buildings downtown are competing for large organizations and healthcare tenants who have evaluated Boston properties and are choosing Worcester for affordability and access. Those tenants bring Boston-level expectations with them. A building in Worcester that offers a modern digital directory, professional visitor management, and integrated meeting room displays is distinguishing itself from the majority of the local inventory — which is exactly the position you want to be in when a quality tenant is making a decision.

Can the same system serve both our Boston location and our Worcester location from one platform?

Yes. The Navigo platform is built for multi-location management, allowing property teams to control content, update tenant listings, manage visitor workflows, and monitor all displays across an entire portfolio from a single cloud-based dashboard. Each property can have its own customized content and configuration while being managed centrally. For a property management company or ownership group with buildings across Greater Boston and Central Massachusetts, that means one platform, one vendor relationship, and consistent standards across every property — without requiring on-site management at each location for routine updates.

How do we justify the cost of this investment to building ownership when vacancy is already elevated and capital budgets are tight?

The business case has two sides. On the revenue side, modern tech infrastructure directly supports leasing — it improves the tour experience, signals building quality to prospective tenants, and reduces the time properties sit vacant. In a market where the difference between a trophy asset and a commodity building is increasingly visible in the details, the lobby technology is part of what justifies a rental premium or wins a deal over a competing property. On the cost side, a cloud-based digital directory and visitor management system eliminates recurring costs associated with static directory updates, reduces front desk labor time spent on visitor routing and tenant inquiries, and requires no dedicated IT support to maintain. The investment is a one-time hardware installation plus a software subscription — and it pays for itself faster than most capital improvements of comparable visibility.

Sources

Boston Real Estate Times — Boston Office Market Tilts Toward Tenants as Firms Commit to Higher-Quality Space (bostonrealestatetimes.com)

Webster Realty Advisors — Boston Office Market 2025: On the Road to Recovery (websterrealtyadvisors.com)

Synergy Boston — Evolving Office Expectation Gives Way to the Elevated Workplace (synergyboston.com)

Boston Realty Advisors — Boston & Cambridge Office Markets: 2024 Year-End Review (bradvisors.com)

Hughes Marino Boston — Tenants Win in Boston's Current Office Market Environment (hughesmarino.com)

C21 Edge — Flight to Quality: Why Class A Office Buildings Are Outperforming in 2025 (c21edge.com)

Lornell Real Estate — Worcester vs. Boston: Why Commercial Real Estate Investors Are Looking West (lornellre.com)

Lornell Real Estate — Commercial Space for Lease in Worcester & Central MA (lornellre.com)

Glickman Kovago — Looking for Commercial Office Space in Worcester MA? (glickmankovago.com)

ITS Inc. / Navigo — Digital Building Directory Systems (itouchinc.com)

ITS Inc. / Navigo — About ITS Inc. (itouchinc.com)

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