Even as it downsizes its local operations this fall, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. landed more than 165,000 square feet of additional space in Shelton in the building that served as Health Net Inc.”™s Northeast headquarters.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. acquired Health Net”™s Northeast operation last year and merged it with its Trumbull-based subsidiary Oxford Health, resulting in the loss of 750 Health Net jobs in Shelton.
The Sikorsky transaction at One Far Mill Crossing is the second biggest lease deal in Fairfield County this year, according to the Stamford office of Cushman & Wakefield, after Westport-based Bridgewater Associates”™ deal to sublease about 225,000 square feet at Wilton Woods Corporate Center. This week, a Westport official reported that Bridgewater is transferring some 90 back-office jobs to Bank of New York Mellon in an outsourcing arrangement; Bridgewater is the town”™s largest employer with some 1,200 workers at last report.
Only last month, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro said Sikorsky is cutting more than 400 jobs at its Stratford helicopter manufacturing operations, as Sikorsky braces for possible military budget cuts, with most of those cuts expected to take the form of early retirements.
In the Health Net building, Sikorsky acquires additional flex space that may be needed as it attempts to redesign its X-2 high-speed helicopter prototype as an armed scout for potential sale to the U.S. Army. Any such contract could set Sikorsky up for decades of additional work, even as it readies for production of a large multi-mission helicopter for the Marine Corps.
When first readying for the Marine Corps contract, Sikorsky secured the former Dictaphone Corp. headquarters in Shelton as a design center.
As reported by the Fairfield County Business Journal in August, Sikorsky also took a large block of space this year in a Milford industrial park for use as a warehouse for high-tech parts.
