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Two major Hartford office tenants are preparing to permanently cut their office footprints according to multiple reports in local media.
UnitedHealthcare and Prudential Financial plan to dramatically shrink their physical presence as work-from-home becomes the new norm, the Hartford Courant and the Hartford Business Journal separately reported, citing unnamed sources in the former deal and a company spokesperson in the latter deal.
UnitedHealthcare plans to drop around 90 percent of its current 350,000 square feet of space in CityPlace1, the city’s tallest skyscraper, while while Prudential will follow a similar trajectory with its 250,000 square feet in 280 Trumbull St. Prudential also recently sold its retirement business, which had a large presence in Hartford.
It’s just the latest problem to wallop the Hartford office market, where office-to-residential and hotel-to-residential conversions have become increasingly popular and successful in recent years, leading to an uptick in retail leasing in the neighborhood. Major downtown landlord Shelburne Global Solutions even saw its marquee class A Stilts Building tower at 20 Church St. go into foreclosure earlier this year thanks to market softness disrupting cash flows.
