300 Main St. in Stamford. Photo courtesy of Colliers International.

A Fairfield and Westchester county commercial real estate brokerage that’s specialized in tenant representation services since its founding in 1997 is branching out into investment sales and landlord advisory work.

“As we’ve expanded and brought on new brokers, they encouraged us to start up these two new divisions,” said John Hannigan, a principal at Choyce Peterson. “Co-founder Alan Peterson and I met with the team and agreed to do that, as we believe there is a need in the market for a locally-owned and operated entrepreneurial brokerage like Choyce Peterson to apply our best practices to these assignments.”

The six-broker firm with offices in Norwalk and Rye Brook, New York specializes in Fairfield and Westchester county properties, along with national transactions on behalf of local clients that have a broader footprint. It originally modeled its strategy on that of tenant representation brokerages such as Staubach Realty and Julien Studley, Hannigan said.

Despite the shift in strategy, Hannigan and Vice President Adam Cognetta said Fairfield County remains firmly a tenant’s market. Year-end availability rates range from 15.9 percent in Westport to 34.6 percent in Norwalk, according to Choyce Peterson data.

Tenants in four Greenwich office buildings near Greenwich station on the Metro-North commuter rail are offering space for sublease, and office markets in Norwalk and Greenwich registered increases in overall availability during 2019.

Big blocks of space include the 275,000-square-foot former GE Capital offices at 800 Long Ridge Road in Stamford and Diageo’s 289,000-square-foot offices at 801 Main Ave. in Norwalk, after the beverage giant announced in January that it would relocate to New York City.

“It’s a great time to be a tenant looking to renew their lease or relocate, as there are concessions including free rent and landlord-provided buildout dollars available,” Hannigan said.