In a possible signal of its future headquarters plans, Bridgewater Associates L.P. is taking more than 50,000 square feet of space at The Towers complex in Norwalk, where it will share the headquarters building of Xerox Corp.
According to records on file with the city of Norwalk, some $1.5 million is being spent on renovations to the offices, which are owned by Building and Land Technology. The Norwalk-based company has been the most active developer in Fairfield County during the recession, inking leases with big-name tenants like Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., McKinsey & Co. and General Reinsurance Corp. (See related story, page 24)
Bridgewater Associates would represent another major coup for Building and Land Technology (BLT). The company numbers among the largest hedge funds in the world as measured by assets under management, and according to Bloomberg Markets magazine is the most profitable, just ahead of Stamford-based SAC Capital.
Bridgewater Associates is also among the larger employers in Fairfield County, having more than 1,100 workers at last report spread between an idyllic, wooded tract in Westport just off the Merritt Parkway, and at the town”™s Nyala Farms Corporate Center off Interstate 95. Bridgewater Associates took an additional 56,000 square feet of space at Nyala Farms in 2009 despite the lingering impact of the recession on many financial companies.
Brokers say Bridgewater Associates is now taking about that same amount of space at The Towers previously occupied by Hewitt Associates, a consultancy specializing in human resources. Hewitt merged last fall with its fellow Illinois-based company AON Corp., which also has a local office in Stamford.
The immediate question is whether The Towers lease is an intermediate hopscotch to another BLT property in Stamford or Norwalk. As first reported by the Fairfield County Business Journal last July, speculation arose last summer that Bridgewater was considering Building and Land Technology”™s Harbor Point district under construction in Stamford as a new headquarters location to consolidate its offices, which would represent a blow for Westport but a major gain for Stamford.
As previously reported by the Stamford Advocate, then-Stamford Mayor and new Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy appeared before a city board in October 2009 to request an expedited approval for the planned Gateway office buildings of Harbor Point, suggesting that BLT had an unnamed prospective tenant who would not take the space unless the project moved forward immediately.
The identity of that mystery tenant has intrigued the local real estate community every since, with Bridgewater Associates frequently mentioned by brokers as a possibility, and for several reasons. The company”™s work force is spread between multiple locations in Westport; in addition to offering quarters in Fairfield County”™s most ballyhooed development, such a move would shorten the commute for Bridgewater Associates workers who travel from New York City. Bridgewater provides a shuttle bus service for those workers.
Additionally, BLT CEO Carl Kuehner III employs Matt Dalio, the son of Bridgewater CEO Ray Dalio; and Kuehner and Ray Dalio have an additional connection as directors of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Carl Kuehner declined to comment for this report.
During the election, Malloy trumpeted his record in helping lure corporations to Stamford. Speaking before a Hartford gathering of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association after his inauguration as governor, he vowed to make Connecticut a friendlier place for businesses large and small ”“ without saying how far he would go in extending incentives to major corporations to remain in Connecticut, or relocate here.
“It is of great concern to the business community that there be some consistency ”“ that they know what direction we”™re heading in, that they can have some confidence in our tax policies and in our incentives,” Malloy said.
