Diversified Investment Advisors to relocate within Westchester

Diversified Investment Advisors Inc. will relocate its corporate headquarters in Westchester from The Centre at Purchase office campus to 440 Mamaroneck Ave. in Harrison in the second quarter of 2010.

The move by Diversified, a national investment advisory firm specializing in retirement plans, was announced by officials at Cushman & Wakefield of Connecticut Inc., whose brokers represented both the tenant and the landlord, RPW Group Inc. of Rye Brook, in the transaction. The company, currently headquartered at 4 Manhattanville Road in Purchase, signed a 10-year lease for 115,000 square feet of office space. It is the largest lease deal so far this year in Westchester.

Diversified, a U.S. subsidiary of Netherlands-based AEGON N.V., will occupy the entire second and third floors of the five-story, 240,000-square-foot, class-A office building in Harrison. Developer Robert P. Weisz”™s RPW Group in 2006 paid a reported $33.25 million for the building and 20-acre property from an entity of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Dennis Ford, senior vice president of AEGON USA Realty Advisors, said the company looked at several locations in and around Westchester and found 440 Mamaroneck was a “good fit for our company. It is well-located and professionally managed.” Ford said the company also was impressed with Weisz”™s multimillion-dollar property renovations and the building”™s “great amenity package.”

Cushman & Wakefield”™s Bill Hartman, executive vice president, and Gregory V. Frisoli, senior director, represented the tenant, while senior director Glenn Walsh and director Larry Ruggieri represented the landlord. Frisoli said 440 Mamaroneck “offered Diversified Investment Advisors the rare opportunity to lease a large, contiguous block of space and remain within close proximity to its employee base.”

The building is 95 percent leased to a tenant roster that includes Bank of New York, its sole tenant at the time of purchase by RPW Group, and Castle Oil.

“RPW Group”™s position as one of the most reputable and stable owner-operators in Westchester County is extremely valuable to tenants during this time of economic uncertainty,” said Cushman & Wakefield”™s Walsh.