Fairfield County Business Journal: 071919

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JULY 22, 2019 VOL. 55, No. 29

westfaironline.com

1 Fawcett Place in Greenwich is the site of Morgan Stanley’s renewal on its 25,191-square-foot lease. Photo by Sebastián Flores.

INSIDE

‘A tenants’ market’ LEASING ACTIVITY SLOWED IN FAIRFIELD COUNTY’S OFFICE MARKET

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HEALTH INSURANCE ‘UNAFFORDABLE’

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YOGA IN BRIDGEPORT

PRIME MOVER IN STAMFORD’S RENAISSANCE RETIRING BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com

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hat a difference a quarter makes. After an impressive start to the year with 725,000 square feet in leasing activity during the first quarter, Fairfield County’s office market slowed dramatically in the second quarter with 308,000 square feet in leas-

ing activity, according to data from CBRE. The second quarter marked the lowest quarterly total for leasing activity in the county since the first quarter of 2013. However, CBRE noted that the combination of the vibrant first quarter and relatively slow second quarter contributed to more than 1 million square feet in leasing activity, the highest level for the first half of a year since 2015.

Tom Pajolek, executive vice president at CBRE’s Stamford office, observed that this level was primarily driven by a single larger-than-normal transaction: WWE signing a 16½-year lease for the 415,000-squarefoot, three-building complex at 677 Washington Blvd. in Stamford that was once home to UBS. “WWE signing in the first quarter carried the day for the year,” said Pajolek. “The second quarter felt slower.” The second quarter’s largest transaction was Morgan Stanley’s renewal on its 25,191-square-foot lease at 1 Fawcett Place in Greenwich. The largest » MARKET

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andy Goldstein makes no grand statements when asked about the reasons for her retirement from the Stamford Downtown Special Services District at the end of the year. “It’s time for me to start the next phase of my life,” Goldstein — a mainstay at the DSSD since 1993, a year after it started — said from her office at 5 Landmark Square. “It was a very difficult decision. I’d been thinking about it for three years, but finally decided that this was the year.” The district extends from I-95, north to the top of Latham Park. Mill River Park is the western boundary and Grove Street pro-

vides the eastern boundary. Its mission is “to manage, enhance and promote the downtown experience,” according to its literature. Although a Brooklyn native — the accent is a dead giveaway — Goldstein has lived in Stamford for 48 years, building a resume that ranges from joining the Stamford chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women shortly after her move to being elected to the city’s Board of Representatives in 1975, becoming its first president in 1979 and remaining there for five two-year terms. Defeated in her 1991 bid to become Stamford’s first female mayor by Stanley Esposito — future mayor and Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy was her » STAMFORD

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