CB Richard Ellis has found in its second-quarter county report that the arrival and completion of the Starwood Hotels & Resorts headquarters has renewed commercial real estate market confidence.
According to Robert Caruso, senior managing director of CBRE”™s Westchester County, N.Y., and Fairfield County operations, the Fairfield office market showed an improved performance in the second quarter of 2010 as leasing activity totaled of 818,749 square feet, an increase from the 517,051 square feet leased at this time last year.
Still, the report shows the county”™s overall availability rate climbed from 19.49 percent in the second quarter of 2009 to 19.79 percent this quarter.
“The completion of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide”™s headquarters relocation from Westchester County”™s eastern submarket to the Stamford non-central business district submarket has reinforced overall market confidence in Fairfield County, and more specifically in the rebirth of the South End of Stamford,” said Robert Caruso, senior managing director of CBRE”™s Westchester and Fairfield operations. “Following Nestle Waters North America”™s headquarters move from Greenwich, Starwood”™s commitment is the second example of companies establishing their headquarters in Stamford so far this year.”
The report showed countywide average asking rents have jumped by $1.94 to $31.28 per square foot from the $29.34 per square foot recorded in June of last year. Caruso said the increase was primarily due to the return of prime space in the Greenwich and Central Fairfield submarkets during the first half of the 2010.
The report found Greenwich”™s availability rate climbing in the second quarter to 22.5 percent, directed by continued downsizing in the financial and hedge funds firm industries and from Nestle”™s move to Stamford.
Of the 1 million square feet of current available space in Greenwich, 32 percent resides in two of the largest blocks of available space in the submarket, 600 Steamboat Road and 777 West Putnam Ave.
Some of Fairfield County”™s noteworthy leases in the second quarter of 2010 included Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide”™s 270,564-square-foot deal at 333 Ludlow St. in Stamford; Affinion Group, Inc.”™s 65,000-square-foot transaction at 40 Oakview Drive in Trumbull; The Nielsen Company U.S. L.L.C.”™s 55,331-square-foot lease at 40 Danbury Road in Wilton; and Catapult Marketing”™s 33,126-square-foot commitment at 55 Post Road West in Westport.
