By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — Eastern Bank is moving its north of Boston corporate offices to Wakefield and will soon occupy the building at 601 Edgewater Drive. In late 2024, Eastern Bank signed a lease agreement for the 51,751-square-foot office building.
Last week, the Wakefield Zoning Board of Appeals granted a variance that will allow Eastern Bank to place an illuminated wall sign on the building.
Richard Batten of Batten Brothers Sign Company presented the request for the sign variance at last week’s hearing. He explained that Eastern Bank is currently in the process of moving some of its corporate offices into the building at 601 Edgewater Drive.
The bank is consolidating its Burlington and Lynn offices at the new location, which will have over 200 employees doing operations, logistics, finance, retail administration and general services.
Batten noted that his company had obtained a variance in 2003 for the sign for the previous tenant of the office building, Epsilon. He noted that the new Eastern Bank sign would be in exactly the same location across the facade near the top of the building.
The new sign will consist of the bank logo plus individual letters mounted on the building spelling out “Eastern Bank.” The logo will be 60 inches tall, he said, and the tallest letters 42.7 inches tall. The dark blue letters will be internally illuminated, Batten said, because some business will take place into the early evening.
He stressed that the sign would only be visible inside the office park and will not be visible from the road of or from any homes. Batten noted that Hobbs Brook Real Estate, the owner of the building, has approved the sign.
ZBA member Chip Tarbell asked that the illuminated sign be turned off at night after the offices are closed. It was agreed that the sign would be shut off by 9 p.m.
No one from the public was at the hearing to weigh in on the requested variance, which was approved unanimously by the ZBA.
Eastern Bank is expected to commence operations at the new location in mid-2025.
Founded in 1818, Boston-based Eastern Bank is Greater Boston’s leading local bank and the largest bank-owned independent investment advisor in Massachusetts with approximately 110 locations serving communities in eastern Massachusetts, southern and coastal New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The firm provides a full range of banking and wealth management solutions for consumers and businesses of all sizes through its Cambridge Trust Wealth Management and Private Banking divisions.
The 155,000-square-foot, five-story office building at 601 Edgewater Drive is part of The Edge Campus, a nearly one million-square-foot office park located off Audubon Road in Wakefield. Campus amenities encompass a fitness center, a full-service café, tenant engagement app with year-round events, and a parking garage equipped with EV charging stations and solar arrays.
The property sits next to a 540-acre conservation marshland, where tenants can enjoy a 1.3-mile walking path providing views of the ponds, marsh, and campus gardens, as well as ample communal outdoor space to rest and relax.
The office park is located on the site that was once home to the Pleasure Island amusement park, which operated from 1959-1969.