Jack Condlin still remembers leading bus tours a decade back of New York City business owners considering relocating or expanding in Stamford, one of his duties as chairman of the Stamford Downtown Special Services District.
As Condlin tells it, the bus would always circle around UBS AG”™s new building, which would anchor the city”™s emerging financial services sector over the most recent economic upturn.
These days, Condlin and other city leaders cannot help but draw a figurative circle around the new Royal Bank of Scotland PLC building across the street from UBS, in highlighting the city”™s newest assets as it readies for resumed growth in the coming business cycle.
The RBS building is one of several trophies the city has added that could burnish Stamford”™s status as a destination for businesses. As it turns out, Stamford”™s rapid addition of residences in the past eight years may best position it going forward, with another 8,000 units that could be built over the next decade.
As much as any mid-sized city in the Northeast, Stamford was transformed in fundamental ways in the most recent economic upturn. The city laid the groundwork for a massive redevelopment of its South End, with Norwalk-based Building & Land Technology Inc. leading construction of the first buildings at the site on Long Island Sound.
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In the past several years, Stamford has suffered the defection of several major headquarters operations, including Xerox Corp., GE Commercial Finance and Diageo, which relocated to new buildings in Norwalk owned by Building and Land Technology. However, Stamford landlords have proven resilient in finding new occupants for many of those buildings, and RBS is now occupying a new regional headquarters building adjacent to the train station. That gives Stamford a second powerhouse company along with UBS to anchor the city”™s emerging financial services cluster, which also saw significant growth among hedge funds including SAC Capital Advisors at its waterside campus.
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Even as the city has built up a well of financial services talent, Stamford has unleashed a small boom of residential construction, most prominently the Trump Parc tower that now dominates the city”™s skyline, but including a number of lower-profile, but equally valuable, multi-unit properties across the city.
“Stamford had an imbalance take place between the ”™70s and ”™80s between commercial and residential growth” Condlin said. “That contributed to commuter issues ”¦ But beginning in the late 1990s with the Avalon Bay development, we began to see the residential (supply) get stronger. As Stamford grew, people were more amendable to relocating into Stamford to live. That has helped our economy grow because companies were able to draw on a larger base of workers.”
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Of course, Stamford must vie for businesses not only with Westchester County, N.Y., for New York-based businesses, but also with Norwalk, Westport, Shelton and other Fairfield County cities that have built up a significant base of office space.
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Key to the city”™s efforts may be continued development of attractive entertainment and leisure venues. Stamford has been attracting regional notice for summer events like sidewalk art shows, the “Alive at 5” evening concert series, and the recent decision by General Electric Co.”™s NBC division moving “The Jerry Springer Show” and two other talk shows to Stamford from Chicago.
If Condlin had his druthers, he would have the city spend the upcoming business cycle better improving its transportation infrastructure, including a possible trolley system that would run from the Metro-North rail line north to the Merritt Parkway.
“Our biggest challenge moving forward is going to be transportation, getting people into Stamford,” Condlin said.
