Bridgewater expands to Wilton

In a surprise expansion, Bridgewater Associates has taken space on the third floor of Wilton Woods Corporate Campus ”“ and is said to be finalizing a lease to occupy much of the remaining two floors of the 340,000-square-foot building.

Any such lease would represent a major vote of confidence in Fairfield County as a suitable home for financiers, as rumors continue of a drastic scale-back in Stamford by UBS AG.

Bridgewater spokesman Alexei Nabarro said he could not comment on the company”™s real estate or headcount plans. An individual who works at Wilton Woods confirmed Bridgewater now has a presence in the building, with a second source saying that is only a toehold to a far larger lease that is imminent; that individual is under the impression it represents a Bridgewater expansion rather than a relocation from its existing headquarters in Westport.

Bridgewater reportedly is launching a $10 billion hedge fund that ranks among the largest ever created ”“ and which would make the Ray Dalio-led company indisputably the largest hedge fund company in the world. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company created the new fund in part from returns from its Pure Alpha hedge fund, which was its first, while also securing billions of dollars in commitments from new investors.

Now it is Bridgewater that appears to be reinvesting in its Fairfield County operations at 20 Westport Road in Wilton, one of two buildings at Wilton Woods along with 10 Westport Road whose major tenant is Deloitte.

In May, a New York contractor filed notice of plans for a $2.7 million renovation at 20 Westport Road, with information on the tenant not immediately available.

As of last December, 20 Westport Road had its entire second floor listed as available on the LoopNet commercial real estate site, along with about half of its first and third floors. As of late June, the building”™s website no longer listed any availability. A small amount of office space was listed as available at 10 Westport Road.

News America Marketing recently renewed a lease for just more than 50,000 square feet at the complex, according to a June update on local real estate markets published by Jones Lang LaSalle. Other tenants include Golf Digest, Infotrieve Inc. and Meridian Consulting Group L.L.C.

In 2005, Louis Dreyfus transferred an interest in Wilton Woods to New York City-based financial services firm TIAA-CREF. Louis Dreyfus continued to maintain offices in the complex, even as it relocated its Highbridge Energy division to Stamford, becoming one of the first corporate tenants to take space at the Harbor Point development under construction by Building & Land Technology (BLT) and Lubert-Adler.

As reported by the Fairfield County Business Journal in 2010, multiple observers had speculated Bridgewater could become the marquee tenant for Harbor Point, with the rumor mill churning faster after the company expanded into BLT”™s Towers complex in Norwalk earlier this year.

At least a few think that Bridgewater may be betting on another Stamford facility coming onto the market. While Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Mayor Mike Pavia say they are not convinced UBS is moving ahead with a major relocation to New York City, one local executive said a UBS trader told him that his trading operation was told it would likely be relocated to New York no later than the end of August; and said he did not think UBS would maintain its giant trading floor in Stamford on the theory younger traders prefer to live in Manhattan.

While the space could be converted to office use, it might also prove a draw for the world”™s largest hedge fund that is in expansion mode even before the dust settles on the recession ”“ and which evidently has no qualms about being able to recruit top-notch financiers to work in Fairfield County.

For now, the scuttlebutt is that Bridgewater appears to be content with multiple locations between its original Westport headquarters at 1 Glendinning Place, in the town”™s Nyala Farms complex, in Norwalk and now in Wilton.