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GE’s Move to Boston Marks Back-to-City Trend

The corporate exodus to office parks that began in the 1960s is reversing.

General Electric, one of the world’s most iconic brands, has selected Boston for its new global headquarters. Justin Fox reports for Bloomberg View that the choice reflects a wider trend in which companies are abandoning suburbs for cities. An exodus to office parks began in the 1960s is now reversing, the article says.

GE emphasizes in its announcement that it was attracted by Boston’s cluster of world-renowned colleges and universities and the area’s tech savvy workforce. The new headquarters will be located in Boston’s Seaport District. According to the Boston Globe, GE is the largest company ever to move to Boston.

The Fortune 500 corporate giant is now based in Fairfield, Connecticut, a suburb northeast of New York City. Despite amenities such as highway access and a hotel, the current location is isolated and not public-transit accessible, the Connecticut Post’s Hugh Bailey notes here. “The common thread in the locations GE has said to be eyeing is something Connecticut, for all its positive attributes, cannot offer — a big-city experience,” Bailey writes. The state’s cities are all on the small side.

Read the full story here. This article originally appeared at Citiscope.org. Citiscope is a nonprofit news outlet that covers innovations in cities around the world. More at Citiscope.org.