OneUnited Bank to relocate HQ to Roxbury

The nation’s largest Black-owned bank plans to relocate its headquarters from downtown Boston to the heart of Roxbury next year.

OneUnited Bank will move into 54 John Eliot Sq. by the second quarter of 2025. The building is in the late stage of planning and awaiting regulatory approval from the city.

“We wanted to make that change because that’s part of our growth as a company and part of our growth as a people. It’s not that we don’t understand the importance of having facilities in places like downtown Boston,” OneUnited CEO Kevin Cohee told the Business Journal. “But we also think it’s important to have the symbolism of the leading Black-owned bank in the country coming straight out of Roxbury.” 

The new HQ building is 10,000 square feet and will include OneUnited’s executive offices and a retail branch. OneUnited’s current headquarters in downtown Boston is 4,000 square feet. OneUnited is the 11th largest minority-owned business in Massachusetts and employs 25 people in the state. A spokesperson for OneUnited said that the number of employees who will work from the new Roxbury location hasn’t been determined yet. 

With 100,000 customers, OneUnited Bank says it is the largest Black-owned bank in the country.

Roxbury is the entry to the “new Black Wall Street,” Cohee said. He added that the bank has long understood the significance of having Black-owned businesses participating in local economies. 

“We serve as an example of what is possible for the Black community in Boston and across the nation,” Cohee said in an emailed statement. “We are thrilled that we were able to secure a location that is sufficient in size. We look forward to expanding the economic revolution taking place in Roxbury.”

OneUnited Bank had total deposits of $21 million in Massachusetts, and $493 million outside of the state, as of June 2023, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation data. The bank brought in $32.1 million in revenue in 2022, according to Business Journal research.

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