This building at 100 Connecticut Ave. in Norwalk is part of the 11-acre property recently purchased by Hunt Investments, a New York City-based investment firm.
An opportunity for further expansion on an 11-acre site and a good-credit tenant that already occupies the existing office building there recently spurred a New York City investment firm to buy a Norwalk property, giving the area’s investment market a kick.
Hunt Investments bought the 11 acres and the 116,555-square-foot building for $28 million, or $240.23 per square foot, according to a prepared statement from CB Richard Ellis. Jeffrey R. Dunne and Steve Bardsley of the CB Richard Ellis New York Tri-State Investment Team represented the sellers, Norwell Land Co. and Connecticut Avenue Realty – an entity associated with Purdue Pharma – and procured the buyer.
The price of the property was average for Norwalk, Dunne said.
“It’s around [the normal] price per foot for an office building in Norwalk,” he said.
Tenant Trilegiant – a company partly owned by Cendant Corp. that provides membership-related services to corporations – leases the entire building, a 1-story structure, according to Dunne.
“It’s a good-credit tenant,” he said.
Cendant is the guarantor on the lease, which was renegotiated shortly before Dunne and his team took the property to market and is good until April of 2014, he said.
‘Significant Upside’
The property consists of the combination of 100 Connecticut Ave. with 80 Connecticut Ave. – a 0.76-acre improved site that has landscaped surface parking, according to the statement from CB Richard Ellis. The other two parcels, 75 Connecticut Ave. and 71 Connecticut Ave., are unimproved sites across the street.
The sites offer many opportunities for further development, Dunne said.
“The opportunity for office expansion or potential retail development on this 10.98-acre site provides significant upside in the long term, while Cendant’s strong credit rating secures the cash flow until at least April of 2014,” Dunne said in the prepared statement.
The site has been approved for higher density, he said, and the small parcels on the other side of the road could be used for small retail or for drainage for the bigger parcels.
“Long term, that’s a really good site,” Dunne said. “It’s a nice building.”
The property is also close to Route 1, according to the statement. Hunt Investments, which usually shops for deals in the $10 million-to-$30 million range, also owns properties in Darien and Shelton.
“They know the area; they have bought in the area,” Dunne said.
Dunne and his team have closed several large sales in Fairfield County since the beginning of the year, including the sale of the Osprey House in Greenwich for $32 million and the High Ridge Park in Stamford for $85.5 million, according to CB Richard Ellis’ prepared remarks.
Norwalk has been attracting heavy leasing activity since last year, but hasn’t seen many large sales, Dunne said. Some commercial brokers described 2003 as a banner year for the city. Leasing activity there increased, they said, because many companies have moved farther east from cities like Stamford to be closer to employees’ homes.
The changes have taken a toll on Stamford, where the vacancy rate for Class A office buildings rose during the first quarter of 2004 from 15.4 percent to 15.7 percent, according to a market report from Albert B. Ashforth Inc. The vacancy rate in central Fairfield County, where Norwalk is located, was 20 percent during the first quarter of 2004, according to the report.
The vacancy rate for the entire county decreased slightly from the last quarter of 2003 to the first quarter of 2004, according to the Ashforth report, which indicated it went from 16.9 percent to 16.1 percent.
