GE (GE  ) last Thursday announced it will sell the Future Points HQ it owns in Boston and give back $87 million it had originally received from the state in accordance with a plan approved by MassDevelopment.

"We are looking forward to moving into our permanent headquarters space in the refurbished Necco brick buildings later this year," said Ann R. Klee, GE's vice president for Boston development and operation, in a statement. "While changes in the Company's portfolio and operating model will lead to a smaller corporate headquarters, we are fully committed to Boston and proud to call it home."

Initially, the firm had planned to relocate from Fairfield, Connecticut to Boston. However, now, the Boston campus will only harbor the company's executive team as well as 250 of its employees. The original 12-story building comprised of about 297,000 square feet will no longer be instituted. Instead, the space will be leased out by GE and only harbor its senior executives. Initially, it was meant to house around 800 employees.

"At the end of the day, two years later, they decided because of their own internal issues they decided not to do the new building so we get the $25 million back, technically, but we never gave it away so that's resolved," said Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "We also over the last two years have gotten $2 million in real estate property tax that we wouldn't have gotten because one was an abandoned building, one was the site that was future development, so I think at the end of the day the city worked out OK on it."

The "internal issues" the Mayor is referring to includes the fact that GE is struggling to maintain current assets, given that its share price is down more than 60% over the past three years. This is not the only project GE has decided to cut; it is also getting rid of its railroad division, and pulling itself out of the oil and gas business. This mass exodus alludes to GE's highly leveraged position and low level of liquidity.

Still, GE is planning to channel the proceeds from the sale to the state of Massachusetts itself, which could be indicative of future expansion plans once the company is back to a healthier financial position; it has not completely retreated from Boston, just placed a sizable cap on its once-ambitious plans.