100 Summer Street Auction Moved to Oct. 27

The 100 Summer Street auction, the foreclosure sale of a 32-story office tower in Boston’s Financial District, has been pushed back one week. Auctioneer Sullivan & Sullivan now lists the on-site sale for Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, at 3 p.m., replacing the Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2 p.m. date that had been advertised for a month, and it has posted modified terms for bidders.

The change appears on the auction house’s listing for 100 Summer Street, which now carries a “Notice of Rescheduled Sale Date and Time & Modified Terms of Sale.” The listing does not give a reason for the delay. We first covered the sale when it was scheduled in our report 100 Summer Street Foreclosure Auction Set Oct. 20.

What Changed in the 100 Summer Street Auction Terms

The deposit amount stays the same. A prospective bidder must still put $10 million in immediately available funds into escrow with Fidelity National Title Insurance Company’s Boston office, along with a signed escrow agreement and a W-9. Two deadlines moved, according to the modified terms posted by Sullivan & Sullivan:

• Deposit deadline: now noon on the day of the sale. The original legal notice required the deposit by noon on the day before the sale, which would have been Oct. 19.
• Closing window: the winning bidder now has until the first business day that falls 35 calendar days after the sale to wire the balance, up from 30 days in the original notice.

The terms also say the deposit is non-refundable and may be kept as liquidated damages if the winning bidder defaults. The mortgagee reserves the right to change the terms again, reject any and all bids, or postpone the sale up until the property is declared sold. The original notice of sale, which a legal-notice tracker shows was published 22 times between Sept. 19 and Oct. 18, names Wells Fargo Bank as mortgagee and 100 Summer Owner LLC as the borrower.

The Tower Behind the Foreclosure Sale

The building sits at Summer and High streets, a short walk from South Station. Sullivan & Sullivan describes it as roughly 1.1 million square feet over 32 floors, about 72% leased, with roughly 100 underground parking spaces. In an Oct. 5 announcement reported by New England Real Estate Journal, auction house president Marianne Sullivan said the firm expected bidding interest to be “exceedingly high.” The tower was designed by architect Welton Becket and fully renovated in 2019, according to the auctioneer.

The current owner is Boston-based private equity firm Rockpoint, which bought the tower in October 2019 for $806 million and took out a $470 million mortgage with Wells Fargo, The Boston Globe reported, citing Suffolk County deed records. The Globe also reported that tenants include Bloomberg and Bullhorn. State parcel data shown in the legal-notice listing put the property’s market value at about $557.5 million on the 2023 tax roll.

Why This Sale Matters for Downtown Boston

The auction is one of the largest tests yet of what downtown towers are worth after the pandemic. Earlier this month, the Motor Mart Garage in Back Bay sold for $89 million, a 45% discount from its 2016 price, as we reported in Motor Mart Garage Sells for $89 Million in Back Bay. Office vacancy downtown remains high, as outlined in our Downtown Boston office market Q3 2026 report.

Lenders across the country face a wave of maturing loans. The Globe, citing S&P Global Market Intelligence, reported that about $1.26 trillion in commercial real estate mortgages is expected to come due next year. Foreclosure auctions like this one set public price points that brokers, appraisers and the city’s assessors watch closely.

What Happens Next

Unless it is postponed again, bidding will take place at the property on Oct. 27 at 3 p.m. Qualified bidders must have their $10 million deposit in escrow by noon that day. In a foreclosure auction the lender can also bid, so if no outside bidder offers more, Wells Fargo could end up taking the building back. The auctioneer has not said publicly why the date moved.

Our Take

This section is analysis and opinion, separate from the reporting above.

A one-week delay alone does not tell us much. Big foreclosure sales slip often, sometimes to give bidders more time and sometimes because talks between borrower and lender are still going on. What stands out is that the new terms are friendlier to bidders: same-day deposits and five extra days to close make it easier for a buyer to line up money. That suggests the seller wants as many serious bidders in the room as possible.

For Boston, the price matters more than the date. A sale far below the $806 million paid in 2019 would add to pressure on downtown property values, which feed directly into the city’s commercial tax base. A strong bid, on the other hand, would be a sign that investors see value in well-located towers near South Station even with vacancy still high. Either way, Oct. 27 is a day local landlords and City Hall budget watchers should mark.

Featured image: Dewey Square and Financial District towers near South Station. Photo by Fletcher via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Sources

• Sullivan & Sullivan Auctioneers: 100 Summer Street, Boston, MA (rescheduled sale and modified terms)
• NoticeRegistry: Foreclosure notice, 100 Summer Street, Boston
• The Boston Globe: Rockpoint bought a Boston office tower in 2019 for $806 million. It’s now headed to foreclosure auction.
• NEREJ: Sullivan & Sullivan brings 32-story 100 Summer St. office tower to foreclosure auction
• The Boston Globe: Motor Mart, once world’s largest parking garage, sells at massive discount