Amid concerns over COVID-19’s impact on commercial real estate, particularly office space, downtown Hartford’s tallest office tower has announced three new major leases, including one company that is relocating from the suburbs and another doubling its center-city footprint.
City Place I landlord Paradigm Properties — a Boston-based realty investor that bought the 884,669-square-foot-office office tower, also known as UnitedHealthcare Center, in 2015 for $113.3 million — announced the leases totaling 54,816 square feet on Thursday.
The tenants include CapSpecialty, a specialty insurer for small to midsize businesses, which is moving from Glastonbury into 23,122 square feet; law firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, which more than doubled its space within the tower, expanding to 12,800 square feet; and accounting firm Marcum LLP, which moved from City Place II into expanded and renovated space totaling 18,894 square feet.
City Place I is now 85% occupied.
The leases are good news for downtown Hartford, which like many cities faces uncertainty as the coronavirus pandemic extends into its ninth month next week. Downtown Hartford remains much quieter than usual during the workweek as many companies continue to allow at least a portion of their employees work from home.
That’s raised questions about what companies will decide to do when their leases expire, and whether they might shrink their office footprints.
At the end of the second quarter, downtown Hartford’s overall vacancy rate stood at 18.4%, which was up from 15.9% in the year-ago period, according to CBRE data. The central business district’s vacancy rate was 20.4% compared to 17.6% a year ago.
JLL Managing Director Christopher Ostop represented building owner Paradigm Properties in all three leases. CBRE negotiated on behalf of CapSpecialty; Newmark Knight Frank represented Marcum LLP; and Avison Young represented Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP.
