Nuvance Health deal expected to add 500 CT jobs

Lamont: ‘Some of the best economic news’ of the year

DANBURY — A new deal with Nuvance Health is expected to bring 500 jobs to the state and fill much of the commercial space at the expansive Summit building.

Nuvance and Summit Development have signed a lease for the seven-hospital health system to rent 220,000- square- feet of office space at the 1.2 million-square-foot building on the west side of the city.

This is the largest new office lease agreement in the state this year and will allow Nuvance to consolidate offices in Connecticut, Summit Development said.

Gov. Ned Lamont described it as “some of the best economic news” of the year.

“Summit Development has made a lasting commitment to Danbury and to the State of Connecticut through their investment in this property, and their new partnership with Nuvance Health, a healthcare institution which provides world-class care,” he said in a statement. “This announcement is only the beginning, as I know it will serve as a catalyst for additional growth and development in Danbury.”

Executive headquarters, back offices, labs and clinical facilities will fill more than a third of the 600,000-squarefeet of office space, with 500 jobs from New York coming to Danbury.

“This is not only a success for us, but it allows Nuvance to have a unified, centralized headquarters, and obviously, it is a major economic boost for the City of Danbury and the State of Connecticut,” Summit Development President Felix T. Charney said in a statement. “We could not be happier with this outcome.”

This will bring the building’s office space occupancy up to 80 percent, with an option in the 12-year lease for Nuvance to expand up to 300,000 square feet, Summit Development said. That expansion would bring office occupancy to 100 percent.

The building was 15 percent occupied when it was purchased in October 2018 for $17.8 million. Since then, Summit Development has invested $20 million and brought in 12 new leases. This increased office occupancy to 41 percent, said Michael Basile, project manager.

“The turnaround of this property that had been a beacon in Danbury for nearly 40 years has gone beyond what we could have imagined,” he said in a statement.

One of the biggest promising features is the proposed Danbury Career Academy. This academy would address overcrowding in the school buildings and provide students with better opportunities to explore career fields, officials have said.

If the academy is approved, all but 120,000 square feet of the building will be filled.

Developers plan to add about 400 apartments to the building, which has amenities such as a restaurant, fitness center and 75,000 square-feet of conference and event venue.

“Our team has worked hard to restore visibility of this iconic Danbury property,” said James Delaune, from Crestline Investors, which joined with the Summit for the building purchase. “Having Nuvance as the new anchor tenant will assure The Summit’s prominence as Danbury’s premier office and medical address.”