Stilts Building Renovations Pay Off

The Hampshire Cos. $6.5 million renovation of the Stilts Building, a 23-story office building at 20 Church St. in downtown Hartford known for its distinctive, angled supports at its base, has helped to push the building’s occupancy rate up from 20 percent to 70 percent over the past three years.

The building’s reputation deteriorated so badly some years back to the point that its ranking as Class A office space was lowered to Class B. It is back as Class A.

Since The Hampshire Co. purchased the property in 2006, it has renovated the building’s common areas, added a fitness center and, conference center and updated the 416,000-square-foot building’s heating and cooling systems.

The latest company to ink a 24,647-square-foot lease for office space at the Stilts Building is Boston law firm Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, which is moving from its CityPlace I digs. The law firm will occupy a full floor.

CB Richard Ellis brokers John McCormick, Patrick Mulready and Alexis Augsberger represented The Hampshire Cos. The space was previously occupied by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Joseph Sciolla of Cresa Partners and Bob Kelly of Cushman & Wakefield represented Hinckley Allen, which entered the Connecticut market last September after merging with Tyler Cooper and Alcorn in New Haven. Twenty-five lawyers from Tyler Cooper stayed in Hartford to open the new office.

Other tenants at the Stilts Building include Tymetrix, law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, patent lawyers Cantor Colburn, and FirstLight Power Resources.

Medical Building’s First Tenant

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation is one of the first to sign on as a tenant in the newly-built medical office building at 35 Jolley Drive in Bloomfield.

Physical Medicine leased 4,000 square feet in the 28,000-square-foot building owned by Progressive Medical Services LLC. This is the medical firm’s second location in central Connecticut; the other is in Southington.

Real estate broker Jones Lang LaSalle represented tenant and landlord in the lease.

Norwich Apartments Sold

A pair of Norwich apartments, with a combined 212 units, have been sold for $17.4 million.

Equity Residential Properties Trust sold the 120-unit Meadow Ridge Apartments on Plumtree Drive and the 92-unit Cambridge Estates Apartments, located less than a mile away on Oxford Drive, to Midway Investors LLC in New York City.

Meadow Ridge was built in 1984; Cambridge Estates in 1977.

CBRE brokers Michael Stone and Jessa Kurzman represented the seller and helped locate the buyer in the transaction.

CBRE Capital Markets also helped Midway obtain a seven-year, $14 million floating rate mortgage through Freddie Mac to finance the deal.

Gray Eagle Park Space

Wine importer Knauth & Vissor LLC has opened a regional distribution center in the Gray Eagle Business Park in Branford.

Knauth & Vissor, which imports South African wines, leased 1,024 square feet of office-warehouse space in the business park at 11 Syscamore Way.

Barry Stratton of The Geenty Group Realtors represented landlord Gray Eagle Corp. Bill Clark of The Geenty Group represented the tenant.

Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal Web editor.