🔒Nassau’s wellness program, fitness amenities attract steady workforce — and even tenants — in Hartford tower

Kostas “Gus” Cheliotis arrived in Hartford nearly a decade ago to help oversee Nassau Financial Group’s $217.2 million acquisition of The Phoenix Cos., including the financial services company’s iconic “Boat Building” headquarters.

It wasn’t long before Cheliotis — a marathon runner and former college football player — sought out the fitness facilities in Phoenix’s headquarters. “There was an old locker room that was pretty dusty and out of use,” Cheliotis, now 47, recalled. Since its 2015 purchase, Nassau has strengthened what had been a struggling company. As that turnabout has taken place, Nassau has cultivated a workplace culture that prioritizes fitness, anchored by substantial facilities and a robust wellness and recreation program at its Hartford headquarters, said Cheliotis, who is the general counsel and chief operating officer. The latest additions are a pickleball court and putting green in the courtyard at the base of the Boat Building — symbols of Nassau’s push to make wellness central to office life. “It’s to strengthen our team cohesiveness, attract talent and make sure we are investing in our team in a way that is healthy and doing it in a way that is authentic to us,” Cheliotis recently told the Hartford Business Journal. “Because that’s who we are. We work hard. Some of the requirements of physical fitness is you have to work hard for it. You have to show up for it. It’s some of the same requirements for a healthy company.” Founded in 2015, Nassau provides insurance, annuities and investment products. The company has grown to $1.6 billion in total adjusted capital, with $25.5 billion in assets under management, along with 363,000 policies and contracts in force as of the end of June. Cheliotis said the company’s approach to wellness is paired with a focus on team building. In part, it’s a rejection of the every-man-for-himself culture he and other Nassau executives had seen on Wall Street.

More than a passing investment

The once neglected locker rooms in Nassau’s Boat Building have been completely remodeled, accompanied now by a modern fitness center outfitted with dozens of cardio and strength-training machines, as well as a group fitness studio. “We have anything anyone would want at a conventional gym and more,” said Michael Remieres, Nassau’s full-time fitness center manager. When Nassau first acquired Phoenix Cos., staff turned to the Downtown Hartford YMCA in nearby State House Square for access to fitness equipment. In 2018, Remieres was a personal trainer working at the YMCA when Nassau contracted him to provide one-on-one training as a reward for top performers. By then, the company had set up a modest exercise area with a few free weights and treadmills, Remieres recalled. The next year, Nassau converted three conference rooms into a larger fitness center and brought Remieres on full time to oversee its fitness program.

Today, Nassau hosts about 15 weekly classes at lunchtime and after work, with live instruction ranging from kickboxing and strength training to Pilates. There are also occasional special events, including baby goat yoga, fencing and the annual “Nassau’s Strongest” competition. The fitness center is open to Nassau staff who occupy the top five floors of the Boat Building’s 12-story tower, as well as four tenants that occupy six floors. The company employs about 550 people nationally, including 300 in Connecticut, most of whom work four days a week in the Hartford office. Remieres — with degrees in wellness, exercise science and nutrition — helps staff with injury recovery, fitness and diet. During the pandemic, the company adopted a fitness app, branded “Nassau Fitness,” that offers video exercises and a personalized health regimen. In the depths of the pandemic, while staff worked remotely, more than 100 regularly logged on, Remieres said. Today, Nassau Fitness has about 40 active users. The idea is to eventually have people “graduate” from the program, he said. Employees can still earn extra one-on-one attention, with Nassau offering the “personal health award” for outstanding quarterly job performance. Winners choose from perks such as personal training, yoga classes, nutrition services or massage therapy. Since 2018, 129 employees have claimed the reward.

Employee perspective

Participation in Nassau’s wellness programs has grown from 20% in 2018 to 68% in 2024, among roughly 550 staff companywide. “I just love it, because you can get your fitness in and it’s a nicer gym than you would probably get with a private membership someplace,” said Kristen Culbertson, a director of actuary assigned to Nassau’s Hartford headquarters. Remieres is helping Culbertson’s husband, who also works at Nassau, train for a 5K run. The company covers registration fees for staff at dozens of marathons, walks, ironman competitions and other events each year. Nassau Chairman and CEO Phil Gass created an employee triathlon team in 2022. Today, it has about three dozen members. Nassau expects to spend over $150,000 — excluding staffing costs — on fitness and wellness offerings in 2025, including in-house programs and events; retreats; and nearly 200 registration fees for more than two dozen community-based races. It already has 20 people registered for the Oct. 11 Hartford Marathon. On a recent Monday afternoon at Nassau’s fitness center, Culbertson followed a video instructor through a sequence of barre poses — a blend of ballet, Pilates and yoga. Enjoying the session next to her was Ana Pope, a friend. “I’ve worked at other places before and one of them had a beautiful gym, but at Nassau, they actually encourage you to go to the gym and work out and get involved,” said Pope, a senior investor relations associate with Nassau Asset Management. “At the other places I’ve worked, even with nice facilities, there isn’t any culture around it, and you almost feel bad using them.” Nassau is sponsoring Pope in an October marathon relay and has backed her participation in other athletic events, including a dragon boat rowing team. In July, Nassau employees held a pickleball tournament on the company’s newly built court in the Boat Building’s courtyard at 1 American Row. Sixteen employee teams competed, raising $1,100 for Connecticut Foodshare. About 100 employees and tenants have registered to use the court, which Nassau installed this summer alongside a putting green as part of a $50,000 investment in courtyard upgrades that also added outdoor furnishings and fire pits. That investment was part of a larger project to fix courtyard drainage issues. Cheliotis admits he was humbled in the summer pickleball tournament. “I didn’t realize how good some people were at pickleball and how bad I am,” he joked. The company is offering after-work pickleball lessons throughout September. “I have not seen it this good elsewhere,” said Ramprasad Narasimhan, an IT program manager who was among six Nassau staff at a pickleball lesson on a recent Tuesday afternoon. “I have worked at a couple of other places in downtown Hartford. This is by far the best offering we have got from an employee perspective. I am absolutely blown away by the gym, the pickleball and a couple of other things. So, I’m definitely grateful.”

Clear benefits

Corporate wellness programs are now widespread. A 2019 Kaiser Family Foundation survey found 84% of large employers that offer health benefits also provide a workplace wellness program. But there is debate about their effectiveness. For years, conventional wisdom and early studies suggested such programs paid off through higher productivity, fewer sick days and lower healthcare costs. More recent research, however, has found that changing long-term fitness and health patterns is difficult, and that the medical and financial benefits of wellness efforts may have been overstated. Studies involving researchers from the University of Illinois, University of Chicago and Harvard University concluded wellness programs may be a good perk — especially for employees already inclined toward fitness — but are unlikely to significantly affect health outcomes, medical spending or productivity. Participation is also often limited, with only 20% to 40% of workers taking part, according to Workhuman. Against that backdrop, employers are reframing their approach: a 2025 survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans found 62% of organizations cited improving worker health and well-being as their primary goal, while just 28% pointed to controlling costs. For Cheliotis, Nassau’s investments are less about tracking blood pressure or body mass and more about providing amenities and benefits that matter. With many corporate return-to-office policies still facing pushback, Cheliotis said on-site fitness and recreation help make the workplace more appealing. Cheliotis said he sees the payoff in staff using the facilities and sharing success stories, such as cutting out alcohol or improving their nutrition. He credits the offerings with achieving an annualized employee attrition rate of 10%, well below the industry standard. “It’s an opportunity to show employees you value them and their health and well-being,” Cheliotis said. “You have to make the dollars and cents work based on the size of your company, but for us to spend a few hundred thousand dollars on a fitness facility that we know we are going to have over the long term is a no-brainer, and I would recommend all companies do it.” The benefits extend beyond Nassau’s workforce. Cheliotis said the fitness center and a quality cafeteria were key factors in convincing international life insurer Talcott Financial Group to relocate more than 300 employees from Windsor to four floors of the Boat Building in 2023. Even as Hartford’s downtown office market struggles, he noted, Nassau’s 345,687-square-foot headquarters building is now nearly fully occupied. “Probably all of the tenants who have come in over the past few years, that’s why, that was the difference between other buildings and ours, the focus on wellness, the focus on amenities, the investments we have put in those areas,” Cheliotis said. “If you want to measure results, we are fully leased.”