As the Harbor Point project nears completion, Stamford officials see the city on the cusp of a very bright future.
“It would be an amazing project three years ago, it”™s more than amazing now,” said Laure Aubuchon, the city”™s director of economic development. Aubuchon said the effect of Harbor Point on the city is one that will be seen for many years to come.
“It is amazing that Carl Kuehner from BLT (Building and Land Technology) has this much faith in this economy. It”™s a huge vote of confidence in the city that he is putting his own hundreds of millions of dollars into the city.”
Aubuchon, who has been in office since January, said Harbor Point is another example of Stamford having the ability to reinvent itself, first in the financial services, media and pharmacy industries and now in the structure of the city”™s downtown.
“This is the major project,” Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia said, “the kind of project that any city in the country would love to have, especially in these times. It truly promises to expand the grand list of the city of Stamford.”
Pavia said the arts and antiques district in the corridor between Washington Boulevard and Elm Street should achieve the flow of traffic previously struggled for in the area.
“It”™s new construction, but there”™s a lot going on here that”™s being adaptively reused and looks to complement the downtown”™s retail,” Pavia said. “It is very much a rebirth.”
The Harbor Point development project is to include 4,000 residential units, office buildings, a hotel, and more than 11 acres of parks and public space. The majority of the construction should be completed between fall and early next year.
“We have big diversity in the industries we”™re attracting,” said Kuehner, CEO of BLT. “Cornell University Veterinary Specialists is a veterinarian hospital, Starwood is in the hotel industry, another group is a financial services consulting group, we have another group relocating out of San Francisco, Fairway Markets is a grocery store and the residences pertain to a range different age groups, some of which work in New Haven, others in New York City.”
He would not disclose the name of the San Francisco company.
Kuehner said Harbor Point has the ability to draw from the West Coast because of the demographics of Fairfield County. “It is because it is very open minded here. This is a progressive city.”
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. recently completed a lease for a new corporate headquarters at 333 Ludlow Place. Greenwich-based Silver Point Capital was rumored earlier this year to have been considering BLT”™s Harbor Point development for a major lease.
“There is a real variety of business being drawn here,” Pavia said. “We”™re not the one-company town; it”™s the opposite of that. The diversification of businesses and organizations make a healthy city much more healthy.”
According to multiple real estate brokers, McKinsey & Co. has agreed to lease a full floor of office space in Stamford”™s Harbor Point development as well. In a press release, BLT confirmed it signed a 10-year lease at 2 Harbor Point Square for 24,000 square feet of space, the entire fourth floor of the building. BLT declined to name the tenant in advance of the company”™s move later this year. McKinsey, a national MBA recruiting company and has a Stamford office at 3 Landmark Square, also declined to comment.
“We think, and our tenants think, it”™s a good city to work in,” Kuehner said.
Aubuchon said it”™s important to note that there are tenants and they are ready to come to Stamford.
“Many people think the city is in control of a lot of this,” she said. “You very rarely can make that initial confidence in a city happen, but I”™ve learned people go where they are well treated. It”™s not about cutting corners or lowering standards to get these kinds of projects and tenants to come in, it”™s about making it as user- friendly as you can.”
In the first full year of being open, Aubuchon said the project would look to bring in about $3.5 million of property tax annually and $1.8 million of user fees to the city.
Fairway Markets hired 90 people the day of the first job fair, Aubuchon said, and have 410 more hires to make before they open in November. The market will have a wine and liquor store in an attached building.
The residential units of The Lofts at Yale and Towne are already two thirds leased and expect to be fully leased by the end of 2010, Kuehner said. The other residential component at 101 Park Place is set to begin leasing in a matter of weeks.
“While 101 Park Place is not yet leasing there are 360 guys on that site working every day,” Aubuchon said.
She credited Harbor Point as being instrumental in developing a “how to” for future major developments in the city.
“For Issues like discontinuing a street, there was no plan in place to deal with that,” she said. “Now there is, and it”™s that kind of thing that gives us a great starting point for the future. The next time someone comes and is looking to expand, we have a methodology to work from. The more seamless that is the more likely they are to come here.”
Aubuchon said using the Harbor Point guidebook has already come into play at the redevelopment of Stamford Hospital. “That project is a $600 million investment in the city of Stamford,” Aubuchon said. She said real estate confidence is contagious, pointing to the former Clairol plant on the north side of the city, which she said looks to have a new tenant in the near future as well.
“The Harbor Point confidence is echoing across town.”
