Havas, the global communications group and parent company of Boston advertising agency Arnold Worldwide, became the first major tenant of the Burnham Building, the former Filene’s site, at Downtown Crossing.

Six hundred employees from Havas Media, Arnold Worlwide, Havas Edge, H4B and Havas PR entered their new DTX digs Monday morning. Dubbed, “Havas Village Boston,” the new office site is the nineteenth of its kind in the world.

Arnold Worldwide president Pam Hamlin and Havas Media managing director Debie Kleiman were on hand for a short ceremony in front of the site, which kicked-off at 9 a.m. Hamlin and Kleiman were joined by Boston City Council President Bill Linehan; Downtown Boston Business Improvement District president Rosemarie Sansone; and Joe Larkin, principal at developer Millennium Partners.

The “village” will span four floors inside the Burnham Building, and consist of 64 conference rooms all named after Filene’s department, reports BetaBoston’s Scott Kirsner, who got an early look at the digs last Friday.

Arnold Worldwide’s Boston headquarters had been located at 101 Huntington Avenue, in the Back Bay. The firm has 12 office sites across the world, including North American locations in New York City, Washington D.C., and Toronto.

Havas Village Boston was designed by Watertown-based architect Sasaki Associates.

Other “villages” are located in Paris and London, among others.

BostInno photo