Fidelity to shift headquarters in downtown Boston

Fidelity Investments plans to relocate its corporate headquarters to a different building in downtown Boston.

The closely held fund company said on Friday that it will move its headquarters to a building it owns at 245 Summer Street in Boston, which it purchased in 1999.

It currently has 2,900 employees in that building. Its headquarters currently is several blocks away at 82 Devonshire Street. Some 600 employees work there and in several surrounding buildings, said spokesman Vin Loporchio.

Loporchio said Fidelity will study possibilities for the complex of buildings around 82 Devonshire, which has been Fidelity's headquarters since the 1970s. This could include the sale or lease of the properties, he said, and possibly the relocation of some employees.

"Our new headquarters provides optimum facilities for integrating our various businesses located in Boston and is better suited to meet our future needs," Fidelity Chairman Edward C. Johnson 3d said in a statement.

Keeping its headquarters in Boston will likely please local political leaders, who have been concerned about earlier moves by Fidelity to close other offices in Massachusetts as it shifted jobs to elsewhere, including neighboring New England states.

"I am very pleased to see their continued interest and investment in this area of Boston," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in Fidelity's statement. Fidelity's decision, he said, "is great news for our city."

Loporchio said Fidelity has roughly 6,000 employees in Massachusetts, 3,400 in Rhode Island and 5,400 in New Hampshire.

(Reporting By Ross Kerber; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)