Despite turbulence in financial markets in mid-January, area real-estate brokers say they do not expect Royal Bank of Scotland to sublease space in a large office it is building in downtown Stamford.
The RBS project is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2009. With 500,000 square feet of space, it is one of just three buildings under construction at present in Fairfield County.
Rewind to June 2006, when RBS accepted what could amount to $110 million in tax incentives to create the facility. The company announced the new building would house 700 workers from its RBS Greenwich Capital Markets Inc. division in Greenwich; 550 employees working in New York City; and as many as 600 new hires.
At deadline last week, an RBS spokesman had not responded to requests for comment on whether RBS is sticking by its original headcount projections in Stamford; and whether it might choose to sublease space in the building if it does not.
Downtown Stamford had nearly 750,000 square feet of quality office space available in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The sudden availability of a large new block of space, however, might provide price pressure for RFR Holdings LLC, W&M Properties and other landlords who have been reluctant to negotiate lower rents. The overall rent for downtown Stamford”™s best office buildings increased $1 over three months to more than $42 per square foot in the fourth quarter.
Complicating the picture has been an ongoing domino effect in the Fairfield County office market, such as Purdue Pharma L.P.”™s decision to relocate its headquarters from Tresser Boulevard to a building a mile north of downtown. Purdue Pharma”™s space was snapped up by UBS AG, which as of last week reportedly was contemplating job cuts in its investment banking division.
The new building will also open up a large block of space at RBS Greenwich Capital”™s current waterfront offices in Greenwich, which last month had 240,000 square feet of space vacant in its best office buildings.
RBS Greenwich Capital is a unit of RBS”™ global banking and markets division, which provides debt financing, risk management and investment services to corporations and government institutions. The division has its head office in London and employs more than 8,000 people in 50 offices, including in Greenwich and New York City.
In recruiting, the company has portrayed a positive work environment, adhering to a casual dress code, and maintaining a “10-year club” of longtime employees that at last report had 150 members.
