In the current downturn, even an event as innocuous as a de novo bank branch opening gives cause for celebration.
Canada-based Scotiabank is scouting for as much as 200,000 square feet of space in Stamford, according to commercial real estate observers, a potential boon for a city that has seen its commercial vacancy rate creep upward even as Royal Bank of Scotland PLC has occupied a new office building in downtown Stamford.
At deadline, a Scotiabank spokesman could not be reached to comment.
Scotiabank currently occupies four floors at One Liberty Plaza at 165 Broadway in Manhattan, and also has smaller offices in Chicago, Houston and San Francisco.
Based in Toronto, Scotiabank is the third largest Canadian bank as measured by market capitalization, and had 69,000 employees at last report.
In the United States, the company”™s operations are primarily geared toward helping large multinational corporations with financial transactions. Scotiabank earned $808 million in the second quarter, down 11 percent from a year earlier.
If the company requires 200,000 square feet of space, few existing buildings are available in Fairfield County that could fit the bill.
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The most obvious candidate for any large company contemplating a move into Fairfield County would be General Re Corp.”™s headquarters at 695 E. Main St. in Stamford, as Gen Re readies to move into a former General Electric Co. facility at 120 Long Ridge Road in Stamford.
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The task of finding a replacement anchor tenant at 695 E. Main has been complicated, according to brokers and attorneys, by the property”™s ownership interests tied up in the ongoing bankruptcy proceeding of Lehman Brothers Holdings.
Day Pitney L.L.P partner Jerry Berkman is among those who can envision a scenario in which no major tenant surfaces to take Gen Re”™s space in the short term, and the building essentially mothballed until the legal knots are untangled.
Closer to the waterfront, construction is proceeding on new offices at Harbor Point, a mixed-used development led by Norwalk-based Building & Land Technology. BLT has yet to identify an anchor tenant for the property, which promises to join the ranks of Stamford”™s trophy buildings with a view overlooking the city”™s inner harbor.
One Harbor Point Square will offer more than 200,000 square feet of office space.
Also promising a harbor view ”“ in Greenwich ”“ is Royal Bank of Scotland”™s former facility on Steamboat Road, whose owner has yet to reveal new tenants.
At the same time, companies in New York City with leases coming due have attractive options for remaining in the city. In the third quarter, Manhattan”™s vacancy rate reached 11 percent, the highest level in five years according to Cushman & Wakefield, and the brokerage expects the vacancy rate to go as high as 14 percent.
That trend is having an impact on rents, with landlord demands down more than 5 percent in Manhattan from the second quarter this year, and more than 25 percent from a year ago. Factor in concessions made by landlords for renovations and other perks to close deals, and effective rents are off 45 percent on average from their peak in the last business cycle.
