MetLife has closed on its new home in Bloomfield, paying $50 million for a 500,000 square-foot space to house its newly consolidated workforce on the Cigna corporate campus.
After deciding to move to Bloomfield, MetLife needed a new home base. But Cigna’s needs weren’t as imminent: For the insurance company, the sale spurs some office consolidation as Cigna employees gather under a single roof on the campus.
The $100 per square foot MetLife forked over is about market price, said Michael Grunberg, a principal with Grunberg Realty, but empty buildings can sell for less. The Stilts Building, or 20 Church St., in Hartford was about three-fourths empty when it sold for roughly $50 per square foot.
Empty buildings have no return on investment, he said, but MetLife needed the space and Cigna found an opportunity.
“MetLife didn’t have much negotiating power because Cigna … didn’t need the money. It’s a true arms-length sale between these two corporations. One isn’t motivated by need, the other is, and both have unlimited resources,” Grunberg said.
For the $50 million, MetLife will also get 1,743 parking spaces and about 50 total acres of land.
But Cigna spokesman Joe Mondy said the buyer’s and seller’s needs matched up nicely.
Just as MetLife’s exodus from Hartford will leave a big gap in CityPlace, those workers’ arrival in Bloomfield will have the opposite effect, putting newly moved employees into underused space.
Cigna employees, who are currently dispersed in several buildings, will consolidate to the historic Wilde Building on the Cigna campus, Mondy said. In addition, about 200 Cigna employees currently working at 280 Trumbull will also move to the suburb. Cigna’s offices had once been more heavily populated with employees, but Mondy said the company had sold off pieces of its business over time, leaving fewer employees to fill workspaces.
Now Cigna’s employees will be housed in the Wilde Building, constructed in 1957. The Wilde is getting some reconfiguration to its insides, as well as new pipes, lighting, heating and amenities such as a new fitness center for employees, Mondy said.
“We wanted to consolidate our operations and that’s what MetLife wanted to do as well. We had a lot of property that was not being used.”
Better Than Building
Joel Grieco, a senior director with Cushman & Wakefield who represented MetLife on the transaction, said $50 million is a good price when considering the costs of trying to build their own facility in a good location.
“You can’t build a building like that for $50 million,” he said.
Cigna’s almost bucolic campus will be a big adjustment for MetLife’s downtown Hartford contingent. In the city’s center employees have a range of restaurants and midday shopping opportunities, but also deal with higher parking costs. The Bloomfield location is a sprawling area with close, accessible parking near office buildings, but forget about the five-minute walk to restaurants; a stroll from one building to the next is more like a nature hike.
Fred Carstensen, director of Connecticut’s Center for Economic Analysis, headed up a report on changes to the campus in 2000. He also observes it informally every day – he lives about 400 feet from the campus entrance in Bloomfield.
Both entities were likely happy with the deal, he said. Cigna, particularly, found a way use their space more efficiently.
