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July 26, 2007 STAMFORD -- Antares Investment Partners hopes to attract another major financial services firm to the area near the Stamford Transportation Center by building a 350,000-square-foot office tower across the street, its managing partner said. The real estate firm is planning a 6-million-square-foot mixed-use development on two large industrial sites in the South End and is buying property throughout the city. Now it is asking the city to change the master plan category for part of the 7.5 acres it is buying between the Metro-North Railroad tracks and Pulaski Street. Antares would need the change, from residential to commercial
development, to seek subsequent zoning that would allow intense
office construction on that property, which includes the shuttered
Manger Electric factory. The first phase would include a 350,000-square-foot office tower on the northern half of the site, which Antares hopes to market to one of more than two dozen financial services firms looking for space in or near New York City. The southern parcel could be used for expansion if the tenant wanted it, Cabrera said. "There are 28 tenants in Manhattan looking for 250,000 square feet and above," Cabrera said. "If we build 350,000 square feet with a world-class architect, we'll be able to attract one of those tenants." Cabrera said the probable $75-per-square-foot annual asking rent -- a likely Stamford record if Antares can get it -- would be only half of what similar space costs in New York City. He also doesn't think a speculative office building would compete
with current space available in Stamford. W&M Properties, which owns the Metro Center office tower across Washington Boulevard, is planning a 325,000-square-foot office tower with modern air conditioning and energy features on 5 acres directly adjacent to Metro Center and the train station. Antares announced in February that it is buying the 5.5-acre Manger Electric site west of Washington Boulevard. That sale should close on Sept. 10, Cabrera said. A previous developer, Advance Residential Communities of New Jersey, had planned to build more than 400 high-rise condominiums on the site. City officials did not like the idea because they envisioned commercial development on all four corners surrounding the train station. UBS, the Metro Center office building and planned Metro Tower office site occupy the two corners to the north and south of the station. Royal Bank of Scotland is building a massive trading floor and office complex on the northwest corner to hold its corporate banking operation and RBS Greenwich Capital division. Cabrera said Antares has also bought or contracted to buy the remaining property on the block to the south of the Manger site bounded by Henry Street, Washington Boulevard, Pulaski Street and the Mill River. The Master Plan changes would apply to a strip of land along the river and the block south of Henry Street, which is occupied by multi-family houses and the former printing plant for McCall's magazine. "Under the current category, you couldn't build anything but housing there," city Principal Planner Norman Cole said. Cabrera said architects have not started working on a design, but the project could include an extension of the train station platform to the site and completion of about 500 feet of the Mill River Greenway project where the property meets the river. The Mill River project would use riverfront trails and bicycle paths to connect both Kosciuszko Park in the South End and Southfield Park in Waterside to Scalzi Park. He said the development firm would also explore improvements to Exit 7 of Interstate 95. The McCall's building would be demolished, and Antares does not plan to preserve the now-dimmed McCall's sign on its roof, Cabrera said. Along with the Yale & Towne smokestack and Pitney Bowes sign that loomed over Washington Boulevard and Atlantic Street until 2005, the McCall's sign was a South End icon. City officials still want more information on the project. Applications for such major changes in planning categories or zoning designations typically come with conceptual plans or rough site layouts, Land Use Bureau Chief Robin Stein said. Cabrera said architects likely will have conceptual plans ready in about a month. He also said the company will reach out to the neighbors when its plans are more firm. Sheila Barney, president of the South End Neighborhood Revitalization
Zone, said Antares officials are scheduled to visit the community
group's monthly meeting on Sept. 11 to talk about the company's
recent acquisitions. "It should be very interesting," she said. "From what we were told, that site is supposed to be commercial, so I guess we wouldn't have too much of a choice." Barney said the neighborhood would be likely to support the project if it brings more employment for residents of the South End, which has one of the city's highest unemployment rates. "The biggest concern would be: are we going to get some of those jobs?" she said.
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