- The Rocky Glen Mill Office Complex at 75 Glen Road in Newtown.
A Newtown building made to capitalize on the vulcanized-rubber breakthroughs of Charles Goodyear in the 1850s is now a growing high-tech hub: The Rocky Glen Mill Office Complex at 75 Glen Road.
The building was renovated in the early 2000s. The owner is Lynwood Place LLC based in Westport. The principal is Jack Braverman.
SS&C Inc., a financial services company started on site, has expanded from its original 1,800 square feet with five or six employees to just under 10,000 square feet and 40 employees. The company reports it has room for an additional 15 employees.
DDI System had four employees on site and, after completing an expansion this year, now has 13 employees. Its original 1,500 square feet is now 6,000 square feet and includes the office of company founder Adam Waller, with additional offices in New Jersey.
DDI uses cloud computing to connect clients in real time with their warehouses, accounting, management, suppliers and customers. Its mission is to streamline costs, anticipate demand and facilitate on-time deliveries as well as giving clients the ability to forecast merchandise trends across the U.S.
The building is next to Rocky Glen State Park and has been designed so the offices have panoramic views of evergreens, exposed granite cliffs, the Pootatuck River and waterfalls.
“Obviously as we get tenant expansions as we just have, we gut renovate for those expansions, so over just the last several years we have renovated about 35 percent of the building,” Braverman said.
Braverman said of the site history, “The building boasts much of Charles Goodyear”™s inventiveness, including shafts in the thick brick walls that go deep underground to achieve a geothermal effect within the very walls of the building. Goodyear was way ahead of his time.” The building”™s built-in advances and curiosities got it featured in Scientific American in 1859, Braverman said.
“The Scientific American article definitely makes our local history come alive,” he said.
The site manufactured the first nonleaking fire hoses and firemen”™s boots. “This was the beginning of the Goodyear Tire Co.,” Braverman said. “Imagine a world before rubber.” Referencing Spalding”™s famous pink rubber balls, he added, “Not even a Spaldeen!”
In the building”™s modern incarnation, Braverman said, “We have complemented the sandblasted brick walls and exposed chestnut, oak and hickory beams with very contemporary stainless steel and glass walls and stainless lighting fixtures.”
Braverman said the availability of highly educated employees, managers and specifically software engineers in the immediate area has helped fuel the building”™s growth. Fairfield County and Newtown specifically boast among the highest educational demographics in the state of Connecticut, he said.
Braverman said the building still has an 8,000-square-foot space and several smaller suites available.
“With growth like this, we are considering changing the name of the office building at the Rocky Glen State Park to Silicon Glen,” he said.
