Charter acquires HQ for $100M
Company still plans to move next year to a new home a few blocks away
STAMFORD — Charter Communications, the provider of Spectrum-branded cable, phone and internet services, has acquired for $100 million its downtown headquarters building, at 400 Atlantic St., in the city’s largest property deal of the year.
The company still plans, however, to relocate next year to a new home base in the city center.
About three years ago, Charter bought for $100 million the 400 Atlantic loan , which was in default at the time. The loan purchase had upset the building’s owner, which saw it as undermining leasing negotiations. But the new deal indicates that Charter and the landlord subsequently resolved their disagreement.
Instead of the owner paying Charter the full amount on the loan, the company exchanged the note for the building and land, a Charter spokesperson said this week. The spokesperson declined to further discuss the reasons for acquiring 400 Atlantic.
Officials at The Landis Group, which was the property’s previously listed owner, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Charter will pay the city $498,500 in conveyance
taxes as a result of the sale. The transaction did not require the payment of any state conveyance taxes because of the conditions for computing its tax and the property’s location in an “entertainment zone,” according to officials in the Stamford Town Clerk’s office.
Since its 2012 headquarters relocation from St. Louis, Charter has steadily grown its footprint in the approximately 500,000-square-foot building at 400 Atlantic. It has been leasing about 300,000 square feet there, according to some commercial estimates.
In addition, Charter leases more than 50,000 square feet at
201 Tresser Blvd., which stands next door to 400 Atlantic.
Despite the acquisition of 400 Atlantic, Charter still intends to open offices early next year in a new 500,000-square-foot building at 406 Washington Blvd., next to the downtown MetroNorth Railroad train station.
While the glass-sheathed exterior of the 15-floor building was largely completed by last year, Charter scheduled its movein for 2021 because the interior needed to be built out.
Next to that edifice, construction of a second building is also underway at 406 Washington. Charter plans to move into the second building in early 2022.
The Gateway Harbor Point site at 406 Washington that Charter will occupy was developed by Building and Land Technology,
which is also the developer of the neighboring Harbor Point mixed-use complex and owner of a number of other major office properties in the city.
Amultimillion-dollar package of state subsidies is supporting the headquarters move.
In total, Charter employs about 1,300 in the city and more than 95,000 nationwide, according to headcounts recently provided by the company.
During the past few months, Charter has bucked the corporate trend of temporarily vacating offices by keeping open its headquarters and other locations.
That policy upset many employees who were worried that continuing to work in their offices would put them at risk of contracting COVID-19.
The company responded that it was committed to protecting workers’ health and safety. After many employees expressed their misgivings about the office policies, the firm made a number of concessions that included giving employees additional paid time off and more options for working remotely.
During the pandemic, Charter’s customer base has grown markedly as a result of the surge in remote working and online learning. The company added 537,000 internet customers in the third quarter. In total, it served 28.6 million internet customers, up 9 percent from last year.
It ranked as the No. 71 company on this year’s Fortune list.