In what is being touted as the largest office space lease in Connecticut this year, Nuvance Health Systems has confirmed it has signed a lease for 220,000 square feet at The Summit at Danbury. The deal will allow Nuvance to consolidate offices in Connecticut and bring 500 jobs from locations in New York.
The lease is for 12 years and includes an option to expand up to 300,000 square feet. Nuvance operates seven hospitals in Connecticut and New York, including Danbury Hospital and Norwalk Hospital, and Putnam Hospital and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in New York. Its executive headquarters, back offices, labs and clinical facilities will be consolidated at The Summit.
The announcement was made by Summit Development of Southport and Crestline Investors of Fort Worth, in partnership with the Rizzo Cos. of Danbury. As previously reported, Danbury Mark Boughton had announced the deal at his last State of the City address; he has left the mayoralty to become the state commissioner of the Department of Revenue Services.
“The Summit at Danbury is positioned to be our city”™s biggest asset,” Boughton said. “Nuvance Health”™s decision to move its regional and New York-based offices to the Summit is great news for our entire city. In this highly challenging time, the success of The Summit is a bright spot and an encouraging sign for the future.”
Gov. Ned Lamont called the announcement “some of the best economic news we have seen this year. As Connecticut enters the holiday season, this is great news that we should all be celebrating.
“This announcement is only the beginning,” he added, “as I know it will serve as a catalyst for additional growth and development in Danbury.”
Summit Development acquired the complex at 39 Old Ridgebury Road for $17 million in October 2018 when it was in foreclosure and just 15% occupied. Then known as The Matrix Corporate Center, the former Union Carbide headquarters has since seen a number of improvements and the additions of a variety of businesses, including Danbury Medical Group, Scana Energy, Mastrack and Odyssey Logistics & Technology
The complex will ultimately consist of 600,000 square feet of Class A office space; 75,000 square feet of conference and event space; 30,000 square feet of core services and amenities and 30,000 square feet of core services and amenities including Market Place Kitchen & Bar, Platinum Fitness, conference space and pool; and up to 400 residential apartments.
“The turnaround of this property that had been a beacon in Danbury for nearly 40 years has gone beyond what we could have imagined,” Michael Basile, project manager, said. “We have invested $20 million in improvements, and we have been blessed with robust commercial activity that has brought 12 new leases since our October 2018 acquisition, increasing occupancy from 20% to 41%. The Nuvance lease will bring office space occupancy to 80%, and with their proposed further expansion we will be at 100%.”
Charney noted that there is much more still to come at The Summit at Danbury. “We have the zoning in place that in December will allow us to begin creating 200 apartments in the building,” added Summit Development President Felix Charney. “This is a creative approach could not have occurred without the cooperation of the City and its Planning and Zoning commissions and staff.”
“The pending agreement with the state and the city to build a new school funded 80 percent by the state, is a tremendously exciting opportunity,” said Anthony M. Rizzo Jr., president and CEO of The Rizzo Companies. “The $75 million Danbury Career Academy for middle and high school students has been approved by the state and could serve as a model for others.”
“Assuming the final bonding for the academy is approved in January,” Charney said, “we will have filled all but 120,000 square feet of the 1.2 million we acquired in foreclosure.”
Designed by the architectural firm of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo, the building was constructed as Union Carbide”™s corporate headquarters in the early 1980s at a cost of $450 million. In 2002, Dow Chemical acquired Union Carbide and sold the building in 2006. In 2009, a new owner bought the 1.2 million-square-foot hilltop building in 2009. Converting it to multi-tenant office space and renaming it The Matrix, it enjoyed some leasing success.
However, following the death of the owner six years later in an auto accident, the complex began losing tenants and eventually slipped into foreclosure.
