GE moving out of Fort Point

General Electric is bidding farewell to its Fort Point headquarters only about three years after moving in, quietly closing a chapter in Boston business history that began with big hopes. The company notified employees Tuesday that it plans to vacate the 100,000 square feet it occupies in two renovated brick buildings at 5 Necco St. early next year and will seek smaller office space elsewhere in Boston. While the company initially envisioned an 800-person campus along Fort Point Channel, fewer than 200 people are based there now and many only come in on a part-time basis. It’s a big shift from the heady days in 2016, when GE relocated to Boston from Connecticut to much fanfare after a hard-fought competition over what was then considered one of the biggest prizes in corporate America. Governor Charlie Baker’s administration worked closely with then-mayor Martin J. Walsh’s to pull it off, and the two politicians touted it as a major win for the region.

But GE’s grand vision here never materialized. Chief Executive Jeff Immelt departed and his successors pared back the company’s ambitions, scrapping plans for a 12-story tower along Fort Point Channel and selling the site in 2019 to Alexandria Real Estate Equities and National Development, which is now building a facility there for drugmaker

Eli Lilly. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, and two-plus years of widespread remote work. Now GE is one of many companies looking to scale back their office space, said John Barros, who was Walsh’s economic development chief and a key player in the effort to lure GE here. Along those lines, GE also said it will put its longtime corporate campus known as Crotonville, in Ossining, N.Y., up for sale. These real estate moves are part of GE’s broader efforts to downsize its corporate office footprint as it prepares to split itself up. — JON CHESTO