Office building open to new tenants, expected to fill fast

Of two Westport office buildings that sold on the same day in December 2012, one on Post Road East recently added a tenant for its last significant block of space.

As for the other on Post Road West? Its uppermost office floor has been stripped down to its bare building blocks, but the broker listing the property expects space to fill in a hurry.

The former 55 Post Road W. headquarters of Catapult Marketing is being made available for new tenants, the newest building to come online on the west bank of the Saugatuck River, along with a portion of the former Save the Children headquarters on Wilton Road being redeveloped as Bankside at National Hall by Westport-based David Adam Realty.

The office at 55 Post Road W. has been owned since 2012 by a Greenwich-based joint venture of Homewood Real Estate Partners and ClearRock Partners, with the buyers having paired previously in the purchase of multiple buildings on Canal Street in Stamford’s South End.

Homewood’s partners include Brian Carcaterra, a broker in the Stamford office of CBRE which is handling leasing queries at 55 Post Road W. along with colleague Tom Pajolek.

Built in 1971 as a switching facility for Southern New England Telephone, the building at 55 Post Road W. was later converted into offices, with Catapult Marketing the most recent tenant until the fall of 2017 when it relocated to 10 Wilton Woods in Westport.

As currently configured, the building has nearly 40,000 square feet of space, making it among the smallest in Westport. During the past year, the building has been gutted with updated exteriors and parking, and CBRE now soliciting tenants, with some 75 brokers visiting the building last week.

“What Catapult had ... you came off the elevator into an atrium that was full of soft furniture and big plants, and you didn’t expect it — it had a lot of pop,” said CBRE’s Pajolek. “We’d love to find someone else who appreciates the pop.”

Pajolek estimated interiors can be built to suit tenants within four months, and that the building has drawn interest to date from firms in the legal and finance sectors.

Morgan Stanley was the first major tenant to take space at 500 Post Road E. in Westport, the onetime headquarters of the crane giant Terex which was purchased the same day as 55 Post Road W. More recently, the work suite franchisor Office Evolution secured space for three dozen offices and support space like conference rooms and lounges.