One Financial Plaza, also known as "The Gold Building", in downtown Hartford. Photo courtesy of Sun Life
The opening of Sun Life’s new office in Hartford’s iconic “Gold Building” was greeted with fanfare and joyful proclamations from Gov. Ned Lamont and city Mayor Luke Bronin even as commercial brokerages recorded a big uptick in downtown office vacancies.
Sun Life’s office at One Financial Plaza, relocated from Windsor, will support the company’s 400 employees who live within communing distance and can host up to 450. It’s packed with features intended to draw workers into downtown Hartford to compete with the draw of working from home.
“Hartford continues to be a top market for talent in our industry, and we want to provide a modern, exciting place to work, even as employees choose when to use the office,” Dan Fishbein, president of Sun Life U.S., said in a statement “We want the office to be a magnet, not a mandate, where employees want to gather for team, project or client meetings. We’re excited for our employees to have a workspace that promotes both productivity and wellness, alongside direct access to downtown Hartford and all it has to offer.”
Employees will have access to treadmill desks, a relaxation room, a separate “quiet” room for meditation or prayer, moss walls, a ping-pong table and three separate zones in the office dedicated to different functions: a “collaboration area,” a “library” for heads-down work and a “village” for socializing.
“We are thrilled to welcome Sun Life to Hartford and the Gold Building,” Alan Lazowski, chairman and CEO of building owner LAZ Parking, said in a statement provided by Sun Life. “Sun Life’s phenomenal new space serves as a shining example of innovative design that takes into account the new dynamics of the workplace. We hope that other companies will follow Sun Life’s lead and see the value in creating collaborative, downtown offices.”
Bronin attended the ribbon-cutting Monday, while Lamont issued a statement through Sun Life welcoming the opening of the new office.
“I am very proud of the fact that we continue to see industry leaders like Sun Life invest in Connecticut,” Lamont said. “The decision to establish a new office in our capital city is great news for the local economy and highlights the important role Hartford’s thriving insurance ecosystem plays in attracting innovative companies and top-flight talent to the region.”
Sun Life’s decision to take two full floors in the Gold Building, announced in late August, came in a quarter that saw a major uptick in the office vacancy rate, with over 350,000 square feet hitting the market in downtown Hartford alone in the third quarter along with around 150,000 square feet elsewhere in the region, according to Cushman & Wakefield research. JLL reported that United HealthCare plans to give back nearly 400,000 square feet of the space it leases in the City Place 1 tower downtown as it downsizes its office to align with a remote-work strategy.
The area office vacancy rate now sits at 25.2 percent, the commercial brokerage said, fully 200 basis points above where it was in the second quarter. The Greater Hartford market has seen just shy of 1 million square feet of negative absorption between January and October, Cushman & Wakefield said, and downtown Hartford itself has 1.74 million square feet of direct availabilities and another 410,502 square feet of vacant sublease space available.
Still, some leasing activity continues, with class A buildings hoovering up over 80 percent of the 243,653 square feet worth of leases signed in the third quarter, Cushman & Wakefield said, as companies looked to draw workers back with higher-caliber spaces and superior amenities.
Asking rent for class A office buildings sat at $25.12 per square foot in downtown Hartford, and $23.20 per square foot for all office buildings.
