Drone and cloud company Aquiline Drones has inked a new lease at downtown Hartford’s Stark Building aimed at expanding its footprint and workforce across several floors, brokers say.
Aquiline on Friday signed a 10-year lease with landlord Stark Office Suites to expand to the 18-story skyscraper’s 13th floor starting Sept. 1. Founder Barry Alexander, a longtime pilot and flight instructor who has worked for cargo airlines based in Florida and New York, said the company is also in negotiations to occupy two additional floors.Â
Those new spaces would account for roughly 17,000 square feet, according to broker Sentry Commercial. Aquiline would occupy a total of nearly 30,000 square feet if those leases are also signed at the Stark Building.
As first reported by HBJ, Aquiline initially agreed to a lease, which started Feb. 1, for the 16th and 17th floors of the Stark Building at 750 Main St., where the company has also been renting a smaller third-floor space since last year.
Aquiline currently has 16 employees at its Hartford headquarters and three external technology teams in Asia, Europe, South America and elsewhere in the U.S. By year-end 2020, Alexander says the company’s Hartford offices will employ an additional 54 management, business and production professionals for a total of 70.
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The former pilot says he is building America’s first public drone showroom at the Stark Building for visitors to view the production cycle of drones.
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“Aquiline Drones is also finalizing numerous manufacturing licensing agreements with industry-leading Drone Vault of France and Aerialtronics of the Netherlands to expand its production of industry-leading drones,” Alexander said in a statement. “This massive U.S. expansion will ultimately bolster the U.S. drone manufacturing ecosystem and will include full utilization of the 16th and 13th floors, allowing for tighter process control and quality assurance.”
Aquiline’s expansion is good news for New York office landlord Adam Stark, who acquired the skyscraper three years ago for $4.3 million.
Stark said he was fielding a record number of leasing inquiries since acquiring before the COVID-19 pandemic in March. But many of those deals were put on hold at the tower, which was 75% occupied prior to the pandemic.
