A little less than three years after New York investors paid $10.45 million for Cigna’s former global headquarters in Bloomfield, the new owners are considering offers for the massive complex. Harry Tawil, a principal of the limited liability company that bought the property in 2021, said he recently received an unsolicited offer for the property, […]
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A little less than three years after New York investors paid $10.45 million for Cigna’s former global headquarters in Bloomfield, the new owners are considering offers for the massive complex.
Harry Tawil, a principal of the limited liability company that bought the property in 2021, said he recently received an unsolicited offer for the property, and put it on the market in order to consider all possibilities.
Tawil said he and his business partner, Jeffrey Chera, are also open to selling off ancillary industrial and flex portions of the complex. They could also keep the entire property, he said.
“We got an offer unsolicited, and now we want to go through and consider all potential opportunities,” Tawil said. “We are still aggressively looking to lease and upgrade the space. It’s not a cut-and-run situation. We are still very much involved.”
The roughly 682,000-square-foot office complex at 1300 Hall Blvd., was completed for around $130 million in 1983. At the time, suburban office palaces were in vogue and thousands of Cigna staffers traveled to the massive building each weekday.
Cigna sold the property to MetLife for $50 million in 2007, consolidating into a neighboring office building.
By the time 1300 Hall Blvd., sold again in 2021, it was partially leased to several companies with a combined workforce of about 1,000 employees, although only around 200 would work in the building on any given day due to COVID-inspired work-from-home trends.
Shortly after the purchase, Tawil and Chera began a hefty program of repairs and upgrades at “The Atrium at Gillette Ridge,” focusing on adding amenities including a golf simulator, games room, outdoor fire pits, fitness center and more. The idea was to create a desirable workspace that would help tenant companies lure employees back to the office. More than $5 million was spent on renovations and upgrades, Tawil said.
The Atrium campus includes a roughly 540,000-square-foot office building, 101,652-square-foot warehouse and 40,688 square feet of flex space. The main building features a four-story atrium with a glass roof and landscaped waterfall.
The building is being listed by Philadelphia-based broker Binswanger. The complex is 58% leased, according to an online listing, which also notes the owners are open to selling the industrial components separately.
Some of the office building’s larger tenants include MetLife, Permasteelisa, the Capitol Region Education Council’s Montessori Training Center, Hooker & Holcombe, Vixxo and Trinity Health.
Cushman & Wakefield Executive Director Joel Grieco, in charge of marketing leasable space in The Atrium, said the “attractive” property is performing despite ongoing post-pandemic trends that have depressed office demand broadly.
“We’ve got a building that is exactly what most of corporate America is looking for these days,” Grieco said. “They’ve all downsized, but when they move, they all want to find a certain vibe that will help attract their employees back to the office.”
