Accounting giant RSM US LLP, which has several offices in Connecticut, is breaking into downtown Hartford in newly leased space at the Goodwin Square office tower, brokers say.
RSM recently leased an 11,000-square-foot office at the 30-story tower at 225 Asylum St., according to global realty broker-adviser Cushman & Wakefield (C&W), which brokered the deal for landlord Goodwin Square Building LLC.
The Goodwin Square office marks RSM’s fourth in Connecticut. It currently has a presence in Farmington, New Haven and Stamford.
It’s not exactly clear how many people RSM plans to employ in Hartford. According to the firm’s website, it’s had a large presence in Connecticut since 1989. Its Connecticut practices employ more than 200 people who serve over 1,000 businesses and 5,000 individuals across the area.
Globally, RSM has roughly 43,000 employees split between more than 800 office locations in over 120 countries.
“Hartford is a strategic opportunity for RSM to establish new presence in a larger market and prepare for future growth,” Tom Ferreira, RSM’s Northeast market leader, said in a statement.
Jonathan Putnam, executive director of C&W’s Hartford office, said the RSM lease deal was likely the only new deal signed since the end of the first quarter downtown.
“RSM continues the positive trend of new companies being attracted to Hartford from the suburbs or outside of the area,” Putnam said.
Putnam says Goodwin’s occupancy is now up to 89%. That’s up significantly compared to when the tower was at less than 40% occupancy when the owners acquired it in 2015.
The RSM lease is a bit of good news for downtown’s commercial real estate market, which has largely been in a holding pattern since many workers shifted to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This story has been updated to include comment from Tom Ferreira
