BY BARBARA A. BIND
Hearst Connecticut Media
The brick-faced building at 88 Field Point Road in Greenwich came on the market quietly ”” with no mailings and no advertising ”” some two months ago. Thomas Torelli, managing partner of Allied Property Group, said the owner of the 11,300-square-foot building, Fairstone Properties, wanted to test the waters to gauge interest of potential clients in leasing the property.
“We wanted to confirm when the space could be ready and what interest would be,” Torelli said.
Things took a different turn when they received an unsolicited offer from a nonproft organization to buy the building.
That deal eventually fell through, but it changed the owners”™ outlook on the possibilities for the place and Torelli said they thought selling could be financially advantageous.
So, Fairstone Properties is looking to either lease the space at $75 per square foot or to sell it. The asking price is $9 million.
The building was built in the late 1950s, and an addition was added to the rear, or north, side of the building in the early ”™70s. “Both the first and second phase were built to the highest construction standards, including interior block walls to deaden sound and a brick exterior and a slate roof,” Torelli said.
The last occupant of the building was a single tenant, the law firm Fogarty Cohen Selby & Nemiroff, which had been leasing the building since 1995.
Now, the building is being renovated to handle up to six tenants on three floors and is being brought up to building and fire codes to accommodate the change.
With approximately 5,000 square feet on both the first and second floors and 1,300 square feet on the third floor, the building will be reconfigured and broken up with two or three tenants per floor.
Fairstone is in the final stages of completing the full-building renovation, which will include a new elevator, new lobby, expanded parking, new bathrooms and ADA access.
The architect on the project is Granoff Architects.
Right across the street from Greenwich Town Hall, 88 Field Point is a perfect location, Torelli said. “The property will appeal to real estate and law firms and it is a popular location for hedge funds and financial firms since it is within walking distance to both downtown Greenwich and the train station,” he said.
What also makes it such a prime space, he said, is the owners”™ investment in the new lobby, where they will install an elevator that will make the building more suitable for several tenants. This will allow the floors to be broken up yet still provide adequate exits. It is very difficult to find smaller spaces in class A buildings in downtown Greenwich.
Torelli said this is one of the largest non-multi-use buildings he has in the works right now.
After that deliberately quiet entry onto the market, Torelli and Fairstone are actively looking for clients for 88 Field Point. Their strategy is simple. “A building with no tenants,” Torelli said, “sells for less than one that”™s fully leased.”
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury.) See greenwichtime.com for more from this reporter.
