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FCBJ TODAY NYU professor: Harbor Point “extraordinary” among national waterfront developments … 2 Connecticut VC on fumes in Q2 … 5 Will Her Majesty’s air and naval services take leap with Sikorsky? … 7
Vol 48, No. 32 • August 6, 2012
Kayak moving HQ to Stamford BY ALEXANDER SOULE
casoule@westfairinc.com
H
eading into its initial public offering of stock, Kayak Software Corp. quietly secured a lease at a small building in Stamford’s Harbor Point development as a new headquarters. Kayak, long based in Norwalk, raised $91 million in its July 25 IPO, with shares of the travel website company immediately rising from a sale price of $26 to above $33. Kayak
had delayed its IPO after Facebook Inc. shares dropped in value following its own May debut as a public company. Kayak secured a lease for offices at 7 Market St. in Stamford, with the building totaling 18,000 square feet of space on two floors and a mezzanine level. Kayak executed the lease with an affiliate of Building and Land Technology, the lead developer for Stamford’s Harbor Point district and the former Yale & Towne factory properties that includes the building at 7 Market St. It is only the latest coup for Building and
In the field: Warren Kanders and company are back in Safariland … 10
Land Technology, with Harbor Point drawing the headquarters offices for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., upscale furniture purveyor Design Within Reach and Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy. Kayak’s initial lease is for 12 years with rents steadily escalating from $63,000 a month to just over $74,000 in the final year of the deal. Kayak holds two options for five-year extensions. As part of the deal, Building and Land Technology is planning nearly $1 million in renovations. At its current 55 North Water St. headquarKayak, page 6
Adding up the numbers for Gold Coast solar capacity … 13
‘Look’ key to region’s future
Danbury expansion escapes the ballyhooed rhetoric … 17
Brokers seek to spur growth, end youth flight to NYC
Special report: Connecticut state goes back to school for manufacturing education … 21
BY JENNIFER BISSELL
jbissell@westfairinc.com
The proposal includes plans for two luxury apartments – reaching 15 and 18 stories each for a total of 417 new units – and an extension to the Summer Street parking garage. “This is a great moving-forward resolution on a space that was always meant to be developed,” said Laure Aubuchon, director
Imagine if it took 30 minutes to get to Manhattan from Bridgeport. Imagine the view out your office window was the waterfront along the Long Island Sound. Imagine you could go anywhere on a direct flight from the Westchester County Airport. Commercial real estate brokers from Westchester and Fairfield counties gathered July 24 to discuss ideas and ways to attract growth in a sluggish market and stagnant area. Yearto-date, commercial leasing activity in Fairfield has had the second slowest half-year period this year in the past decade. Hosted by real estate event company Bisnow L.L.C., panelists said the future of the counties’ growth depended not only on businesses moving to the region, but attracting the younger generation. The New York City exodus to the northern suburbs was spurred by high taxes, crime and dirtiness. But since it has cleaned up its act, people no longer want to leave the city and area
Stalemate, page 6
Look Key, page 6
Also …
“But be careful: don’t put ‘Fresh Pair’ in the subject line.” 4
Curley’s
Stalemate no longer 13 years later, buildings to rise
MEDIA PARTNER
BY JENNIFER BISSELL
jbissell@westfairinc.com After years of stalled action, development plans for apartment buildings are finally moving forward in downtown Stamford on Washington Boulevard and Park Place West.
Stay healthy, or else • 3