A 30-year veteran of the real estate business from Norwalk has assembled a triage team with its eye on keeping businesses in Fairfield County.
Already, they”™ve notched a victory.
“We are acting in concert to provide necessary services at reduced costs and or increased availability at a time when the economy is suggesting that just one service provider alone may not be able to render the bouquet of services many area companies may need to survive these challenging economic times,” said Winthrop Baum managing partner of WEB Realty Company.
Baum has worked in the real estate business as a developer, broker and marketing director.
“The net result is I know a lot of people,” said Baum.
Three years ago, Baum formed the Fairfield County Commercial Brokers Network.
“We meet monthly and talk about business,” said Baum. “One of the first things I recognized was that Connecticut is a very difficult place for companies to do business; it”™s very high cost. Only a few of them survive so the businesses we have in this area are quite precious because they have learned to make it.
“Since at least the third quarter of last year many companies appears to have fallen off a cliff,” said Baum. “I conferred with a number of my associates and decided what we need to do is incentivize companies to stay in the area and to stay viable, otherwise we”™re going to lose them.”
Baum said the loss of businesses is something that will be hard to replace, especially in this area.
“It”™ll be an awful long time before we can replace them because developers and agents aren”™t getting phone calls from out of state asking to move into Connecticut and that”™s a problem,” said Baum. “If we lose a business, then we”™re going to have to wind up having fewer businesses and that”™s going to have a real negative effect on our economy.”
Baum decided that if something were to be done, why not let it start with his 265,000-square-foot office building in Norwalk?
“I announced in December that we were going to now take new tenants in at the starting rate of only $9 per square foot,” said Baum. “The reason we”™re doing that is we know the average market in our area is about $40 per square foot, so if we can save somebody 75 percent off of their occupancy expenses, well that”™s money that travels directly to the bottom line.”
Marc Favreau, managing director of Nexus Associates in Norwalk, found through his Recession Busters Block Sale that the first thing business owners would like assistance in is leniency from landlords.
“If we do what it takes for companies to remain viable, or more importantly to remain in the area as opposed to taking their businesses and moving them to lower-cost regions, we keep employees employed in the area, we keep these companies contributing to the economy and our region and we wind up rehabilitating what would otherwise be a good corporate citizen,” said Baum.
Baum”™s December announcement created a great deal of buzz.
“What I then found was that the economy had so fallen off that it couldn”™t be just me,” said Baum. “It had to be a team effort and approach. I thought if we put together an economic triage team we could administer real help to companies that are in need.”
Baum reached out to James Moffat and Ray Wasson of BKM Furniture in Stamford and one of his own tenants in Norwalk, Steve Viggiano, franchise owner of Two Men and a Truck, and they put a package together to offer solutions, calling it The Economic Triage Team, or TETT, to help keep businesses in the area.
“I think the team effort of all the TETT participants involved has been very encouraging in an extremely tough economy,” said Viggiano. “It shows the enthusiasm and creativity of the local businesses to take matters into our own hands and try to find solutions to ease the economic burdens we are all encountering. It provides a start in providing a vehicle to other companies that are looking to lower operating costs by moving into a great building at a lower rental rate.” Â
Baum approached banks with the idea; the banks took the reins with the idea of involving the federal Small Business Administration in the cause.
“With that, companies can really get low cost financing that”™s guaranteed,” said Baum. “The so-called lending freeze does not apply because the government is very supportive of SBA financing.”
Baum was able to get Fairfield County Bank, and HSBC and Chase in Westport to each administer to consecutively larger amounts up to $2.5 million.
“We”™re really trying to hit the small- to mid-size business,” said Baum.
Baum said the collective, launched in early March, so far has resulted in one company, Sharp Performance USA of Norwalk, staying in place.
“They were on their way up to New Hampshire for $12 per square foot,” said Baum. “We convinced them to stay in Norwalk.”
