NORWALK — A recently signed lease for office space in a Norwalk complex is one of the largest office deals this year in Connecticut.
In the third quarter of this year, an unnamed firm signed a lease for 85,732 square feet at 901 Main Ave., part of the three-building property known as The Towers, according to a new report from commercial real estate firm CBRE. Not including renewals, the only larger new office lease inked this year was in Fairfield County where career-services company Indeed signed an agreement to take about 124,000 square feet at 200 Elm St., in downtown Stamford, according to CBRE data.
CBRE officials declined to disclose the name of the tenant that signed the lease at 901 Main Ave. in Norwalk.
Local officials said that they did not know the identity of the tenant, but they touted the deal as a win for the office-leasing market in Connecticut's sixth-most-populous city.
“This size of lease indicates a strong demand for office space, especially at a time when many companies are reevaluating their workspace needs,” Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said. “A commitment of this magnitude reflects confidence in Norwalk’s business environment, which can be attributed to the city’s appeal as a hub for both corporate and small business activities and reputation as an attractive location to live, work and play.”
Messages left for Building and Land Technology, which owns The Towers, were not returned.
Covering approximately 1.1 million square feet, The Towers also include the buildings at 801 Main Ave., and 45 Glover Ave.
At 45 Glover, home-repair plan provider HomeServe USA signed a lease in the second quarter for about 66,000 square feet, according to CBRE. HomeServe USA's current address is in the 601 building in the neighboring Merritt 7 office complex, according to the company's website.
HomeServe USA's lease at 45 Glover offsets the departure of heavy-equipment manufacturer Terex, which has relocated this year its main offices to 301 Merritt 7.
Among other recent deals, cheese importer Norseland Inc., has signed a lease for 11,353 square feet at 301 Merritt 7, according to a press release issued last week by the company and commercial real estate firm Choyce Peterson, which represented Norseland in the leasing negotiations.
Norseland is relocating its main offices from Darien. The company is a subsidiary of TINE SA, Norway’s largest co-operative of dairy farmers, and it was originally formed in 1978 to import Jarlsberg cheese wheels to the U.S.
“We're thrilled to be moving into this premier office location,” Sean Moore, CEO and president of Norseland, said in a written statement thanking the real estate firm "for finding this modern workspace, ushering us into a new era of working and making it easy to improve the quality of life for Norseland employees.”
The competitiveness of The Towers and Merritt 7 has been boosted by upgrades made in the past few years at the Merritt 7 Metro-North Railroad station. Among the improvements, a pedestrian bridge that connects the station and Merritt 7 opened at the beginning of this year.
Despite the recent deals, Norwalk and neighboring towns are still contending with a relatively high office vacancy rate. In the third quarter of this year, the availability rate in central Fairfield County ran at approximately 30 percent, compared with about 26 percent for all of Fairfield County, according to CBRE.
The Towers and Merritt 7 stand adjacent to BLT’s The Curb and One Glover apartment complexes, which house more than 800 apartments. BLT has secured approval from local officials to build up to approximately 1,200 additional units between Main Avenue and Route 7, but construction has not begun yet.
Among developments in other cities, BLT is also the developer of Harbor Point in Stamford’s South End.