In building up the profile of its new BLT Financial Centre, Building and Land Technology slanted a giant sign southwest facing Manhattan, listing the number to call for prospective tenants.
The next most important number may be on the time ticking away on the clock tower atop the empty building”™s other wing.
A month after the Fairfield County Business Journal first reported Building and Land Technology”™s negotiations on the property, BLT confirmed its purchase of the building at 695 E. Main St.
Stamford-based BLT paid $30.3 million for the building, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate broker that represented entities working on behalf of seller Lehman Brothers.
A BLT affiliate took out a $17.5 million mortgage on the property from Citibank. The real estate community is now wondering whether BLT has one or more large tenants immediately on tap that could help it make payments on an equivalent percentage of the available space in the 615,000-square-foot building ”“ which would amount to more than 350,000 square feet.
Andrew Merin, a New Jersey-based vice chairman of Cushman & Wakefield who led the sale process, said a half-dozen companies are considering the New York City suburbs at present for at least 250,000 square feet.
Merin added that one Fortune 100-size company, which he did not identify by name, is giving a strong look at both Fairfield County and Westchester County, N.Y. for more than 400,000 square feet, as well as Bergen County, N.J. New York City is home to 16 companies that size, including Fortune publisher Time Warner itself , which was rumored this past fall to have been investigating Stamford for a potential relocation.
BLT Financial Centre could obviously accommodate that big a deal ”“ its signature clock tower even evokes the company”™s namesake Time magazine ”“ as could the former Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. headquarters in White Plains, N.Y., following Starwood”™s relocation last month to BLT”™s Harbor Point development.
Connecticut offers a First Five incentive program for companies that add at least 200 employees in the state.
“There are people looking for that big a space,” Merin said. “A lot of those decisions have been put on hold.”
BLT CEO Carl Kuehner III, of course, is hunting tenants to fill other Stamford buildings ”“ notably 260 Long Ridge Road north of downtown; the just-completed One Harbor Point Square at Harbor Point; and the planned Gateway building on which BLT has yet to commence vertical construction.
As pointed out by Grubb & Ellis Co. in a third-quarter market analysis, Fairfield County has about 40 blocks of space greater than 40,000 square feet available and minimal demand ”“ in the third quarter, only two deals that size were signed. Grubb & Ellis added that blocks of space 20,000 square feet and larger have languished on the market an average of three years, and calculated an office availability rate in downtown Stamford of 32 percent.
Add it up, and BLT Financial Centre adds about another 30 blocks of space that size to the downtown market. One big tenant would go a long way toward helping BLT pay for its new mortgage and tax burden from operations rather than savings.
