Policymakers have long touted Bridgeport”™s potential to attract financial firms fed up with onerous commutes into Greenwich and Stamford.
With the relocation of a Swiss firm”™s trading floor from Norwalk to Bridgeport, they have new fuel for their argument.
Kolmar Americas Inc. is moving 20 employees from MerrittView at 383 Main Street in Norwalk into the 16,000-square-foot penthouse floor of Park City Plaza, a building located just off Bridgeport”™s waterfront at 10 Middle Street.
Coincidentally, the building is also the home to several economic development organizations, including the Bridgeport Economic Resource Center (BERC) and the Bridgeport Regional Business Council.
The Kolmar relocation provides new Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch an early ”“ if minor ”“ economic victory. While Bridgeport is home to People”™s United Financial Inc. and the RBS National Bank division of Royal Bank of Scotland, few other financial firms have shown interest in the city, among the poorest in Connecticut.
In its annual report reviewing 2007, BERC could single out just four business relocations to Bridgeport totaling 30 jobs as a direct result of its recruitment efforts ”“ and most of those jobs were chalked up to Kolmar”™s 2007 commitment to relocate to Bridgeport. The city has several residential projects in the works downtown that leaders believe will spur additional business activity.
“Our company is growing rapidly and office rents are also increasing,” said Raf Aviner, president of Kolmar Americas, in a prepared statement. “Bridgeport was mentioned as a place where the rents were more reasonable and we came to look. I got to know downtown and I liked it. It has a lot of potential. Bridgeport is a very underrated city. There are some wonderful restaurants and there are some new nighttime entertainment venues going in. It”™s great to be a part of and contribute to it.”
Aviner”™s own commute was shortened ”“ he lives in Orange.
Based in Zug, Switzerland, parent company Kolmar Group AG trades crude oil, gasoline and other petroleum products, as well as chemicals like benzene. In 2007, the company traded more than $3.2 billion in petrochemicals, up from $2.2 billion in 2006.
Kolmar”™s new landlord is Trefz Corp., which has its own office at Park City Plaza. The building is 18 floors high and has 180,000 square feet of space. Before Kolmar”™s move, the building had more than 70,000 square feet of available space, including four entire floors.
Kolmar”™s new office was reconfigured to a trading floor style and has been adorned with original artwork, with low work tables, desks and filing cabinets so all the employees can enjoy the panoramic view of Long Island Sound from the penthouse. Several big-screen televisions are affixed to the walls to allow traders to keep track of the chemical and oil markets.
