BY DIRK PERREFORT
Hearst Connecticut Media
On a hillside overlooking picturesque southwestern Danbury, construction crews are putting the finishing touches on Belimo Americas”™ new 200,000-square-foot headquarters slated to open this fall.
The company began construction on the new home for its Americas operations more than two years ago. It chose 34 acres near the city”™s western border, former home to Novo Laboratories.
While most buildings have finished ceilings that hide heating and air conditioning systems, Belimo”™s building is designed so that customers can see its components at work.
John Coppola, the company”™s vice president of finance and administration for Americas operations, said the layout allows for tours of the facility so customers can see the products in action. Cloud-based ceilings allow visitors to view the company”™s damper actuators and control valves at work. In the boiler room, a facility usually closed from the public, color-coded pipes help customers distinguish one system from another.
“We call it the Belimo experience,” Coppola said.
The building replaces the company”™s leased 88,000-square-foot office and production facility on Old Ridgebury Road. Coppola said the new building was designed to meet the company”™s needs for the next decade and beyond.
“We built in the capacity to expand the building if additional production or office space is needed,” he said.
While the new building includes 126,000 square feet of manufacturing space, more than double the size of that in the existing building, Coppola said another 100,000 square feet of production space could be created by knocking out a back wall. The structure was designed to accommodate another 23,000 square feet of office space.
The building includes an Automated Storage and Retrieval System for more efficient production and inventory controls. The structure will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.
“Being an energy-solutions provider, it was important to us that the building reflects who we are,” Coppola said. “We aren’t just providing energy solutions products; we are living it every day. We live who we are.”
While most real estate professionals agree constructing a new building in the area isn”™t the cheapest option, Coppola said leaving the city was never an option for the Switzerland-based company.
“This is where we established our roots back in the 1980s, so it”™s meaningful for us to continue to grow here,” he said. “We choose to stay in Danbury because of the value our employees bring to the company.”
Meredith Siburn, a commercial broker with Cushman & Wakefield”™s Stamford office, said while new construction is typically very expensive, the company likely wasn”™t able to find a space in the area that was able to meet their needs.
“From that perspective, it probably made more sense for them to build new,” she said. “A project like that is very expensive and I”™m sure they have a lot of capital tied up in the building, but it”™s an investment in their future.”
She said the construction provides an opportunity for another company to move into the space Belimo plans to vacate. Siburn is representing the building.
“It”™s exciting to have a headquarters-quality flex building available in the marketplace in a great location,” she said. “We are in discussions and showing the building to potential users who are currently both in and outside of the market.”
City officials and area business leaders said they are pleased that Belimo, which employs more than 275 people, decided to remain in the city and invest in a new facility.
“Not only are they staying here but they are investing in a state-of-the-art facility that will allow them to expand their manufacturing and the number of people they employ,” said Stephen Bull, president of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce. “A lot of people have been talking about manufacturing that”™s leaving the state. It”™s heartening to see this wonderful company stay right here.”
Coppola said the company is constantly expanding its workforce. It has more than a dozen jobs advertised at its Danbury facility, including everything from engineers to assemblers.
Coppola said the company hopes to move into the new building around Nov. 1.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury.) See newstimes.com for more from this reporter.
