During the topping off ceremony Mayor Thomas M. Menino stated "One Lincoln will be a tremendous addition to the City and will become a signature gateway to the Financial District".

One Lincoln Street was the first speculative office building developed in downtown Boston since the late 1980s.

Originally approved in 1990, One Lincoln was to be the first downtown office building to be developed through the City's Linkage Program which included the investment and participation of a group of City-designated local minority partners, Columbia Plaza Associates.

[3] As the market recovered and the office vacancy rate dropped, Gale International, backed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds and The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio entered into a development joint venture with Columbia Plaza Associates in the fall of 1999.

[3] On January 2, 2007, American Financial Realty Trust, which owned 70% of the office tower in a partnership with State Street, sold the building to Fortis Property Group for the disclosed sum of $889 million.

The rigid three-foot-thick slurry wall installed along the two sides abutting the new construction preserved its structural integrity.