As it looks to sell Shrewsbury campus, UMass moves president’s office to Westborough

Photo | Courtesy of JLL The UMass president's office will move its Shrewsbury operations to 50 Washington St. in Westborough.

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By Timothy Doyle

The University of Massachusetts president’s office is relocating from its current offices in Shrewsbury to 50 Washington St. in Westborough.

The president’s office, which employs more than 300 employees in Shrewsbury and Boston, will lease just less than 50,000 square feet of office space from Carruth Capital of Westborough, according to a Thursday press release from national real estate firm JLL, whose Executive Vice President Alison Powers and Managing Director Bob McGuire represented the landlord.

The UMass president’s office is leaving its offices at 333 South St., which is owned by the UMass system. Worcester real estate firm Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates’ Principals William Kelleher and James Umphrey and Executive Vice President Philip DeSimone represented UMass in the lease transaction.

“50 Washington Street checked a lot of boxes for our real estate consolidation from 333 South Street,” UMass Chief Procurement Officer of UMass David Cho said in the press release. “We are extremely happy with the work that Kelleher & Sadowsky and (Boston architectural firm) Miller Dyer Spears provided to us in order to make this long-term decision, effectively reducing our footprint in Central Massachusetts while providing better support to the University system.”

While moving its president’s office to Westborough, UMass is looking to sell its Shrewsbury property. The 682,000-square-foot building on 69 acres is listed for sale on the Kelleher & Sadowsky website.

The Shrewsbury campus is the location of Worcester-headquartered UMass Chan Medical School’s South Street Campus. The Boston Business Journal reported the president’s office is leaving behind 100,000 square feet in Shrewsbury. When asked about how that space would be used, or if UMass Chan is planning a move, a UMass Chan spokesperson said Tuesday there is no new information to share at this time.

UMass Chan already has started to draw down the number of employees working at the Shrewsbury campus. In 2021, Commonwealth Medicine, now called ForHealth Consulting, a division of UMass Chan, announced that it was shifting 500 employees at 333 South St. to a work-from-home hybrid model.

UMass purchased the Shrewsbury campus in 2007 for $27.5 million through an affiliate Worcester City Campus Corp., according to the Worcester District Registry of Deeds.