Massive new headquarters highlights Charter’s growth
STAMFORD — Connecticut’s secondlargest city keeps growing — and its business community highlights the expansion.
The largest of the corporate newcomers, tobacco giant Philip Morris International, plans to open by next summer its new headquarters at 677 Washington Blvd. Its neighbors will include a fellow Fortune 500 firm: Charter Communications, the provider of Spectrum-branded services, which opened this year its own new headquarters, next to the downtown MetroNorth Railroad station.
After nearly four years of construction, Charter’s glass-sheathed complex at 400 Washington Blvd., represents one of the largest office properties ever built in Connecticut. For a number of elected officials, Charter offers an exemplar for PMI and other new corporate arrivals — while its expansion since its arrival in Stamford nearly a decade ago also shows that major companies can thrive in a state with longstanding economic headwinds.
“Being in Stamford is a big deal for us,” Paul Marchand, Charter’s chief human resources officer, said in a recent interview at the new headquarters. “We were here in a space that we thought was good, but not necessarily great. We think this is a great space. It’s been a big plus in attracting and retaining talent.”
Opening a new headquarters
Charter’s new base includes Building 1, which opened in March. It covers about 532,000 square feet across 14 floors. Under construction are an adjacent Building 2 encompassing about 288,000 square feet across nine floors and a three-story connecting structure totaling around 94,000 square feet.
The property has been developed by Stamford-based Building and Land Technology, which is also the developer of the mixed-use Harbor Point complex that has transformed the city’s South End in the past decade.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Charter Communications as they look to expand and build their next generation workplace,” BLT Co-President Ted Ferrarone said in a statement. “Part of a rapidly growing trend of businesses strategically choosing Stamford’s Harbor Point, Charter will have access to talent, world-class amenities and an array of transportation options. As Charter builds on their commitment to the Stamford community, Building and Land Technology is pleased to have built a world-class campus in a park-like setting with access to a vibrant live-work-and-play lifestyle in a thriving community.”
Most of Charter’s approximately 1,600 Stamford employees are working in the new building, whose upper floors offer sweeping vistas of Stamford, Long Island Sound and the Manhattan skyline. While social distancing signs posted throughout the offices attest to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact, each floor of Building 1 bustles with employees during peak working hours.
Charter’s high-office occupancy reflects its government designation as an essentialservices provider, a classification that has allowed it to keep its offices open throughout the pandemic.
During the first wave of the pandemic, the company’s insistence on maintaining an office presence sparked numerous employee complaints about potential exposure to COVID-19 in its then-headquarters building, at 400 Atlantic St., which is a few blocks from 400 Washington. In response, Charter made several changes that included offering additional paid time off and more options for working remotely.
Employees’ health and safety is a top priority in the new headquarters, executives said. They cited, for instance, an approximately 2,000-square-foot health center that is scheduled to open next June on the first floor of Building 1.
“It’s been part of our strategy for the ongoing support of our company’s benefits and compensation and plans to have some on-site health support,” Marchand said.
A number of employees are still working across five floors at 400 Atlantic. They will move to Building 2, which is scheduled to open to the first group of employees in early 2022.
Charter acquired 400 Atlantic last year for $100 million, and it has put the 15-floor property up for sale.
“It’s exciting to see Charter’s recent growth in Stamford,” said Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons, who was sworn in Dec. 1, after serving as a state representative for nearly seven years. “Not only have they brought in hundreds of jobs, but their investment in our community is evident through their philanthropic efforts with local nonprofits and social service organizations. This is a model that other companies looking to come to Stamford can and should follow and is an important factor to myself and my colleagues as we seek to attract new businesses to Stamford.”
Growing in Stamford — and nationwide
The new headquarters reflects the precipitous growth in recent years of the No. 64 firm on this year’s Fortune 500 list. Supported by a workforce of about 96,000, Charter delivers its cable, internet and phone services through the Spectrum
brand across 41 states, including Connecticut.
After moving its headquarters to Stamford from St. Louis, Mo., Charter started in 2012 with a sublease across two floors at 400 Atlantic. In the following years, it expanded to reach a peak occupancy of nine full floors and parts of two other levels.
In October 2017, Charter announced plans to move to 400 Washington, which at that point consisted of only a parking garage. The announcement followed a massive expansion in the company’s reach that resulted from its acquisition in 2016 of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.
Boosted by the pandemic-sparked spike in demand for home internet service, Charter has continued to grow significantly in recent years. It recorded about $38 billion in revenues in the first nine months of 2021 — up 8 percent from the same period in 2020. In the third quarter of this year, it served about 30 million residential customers and around 2 million small- and medium-sized business customers, up 10 percent from the total in the same period in 2019.
“With their number of jobs, Charter’s presence is hugely significant,” said Chris DiPentima, CEO and president of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, whose member companies include Charter. “And it continues to send a positive message that Connecticut is actually a good place to do business and grow your business, as Charter is doing.”
Major state investment in company
Public officials have enthusiastically supported Charter’s growth in the state, highlighted in the state subsidies awarded in the past decade in exchange for it meeting targets for creating and retaining jobs.
The company was recruited to the state with the support of the First Five Plus corporate-incentives program launched in 2011 by the administration of then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. The company qualified for loans of $10 million and $6.5 million, up to $10 million in tax credits and a $2 million grant.
For the $6.5 million loan, the entire principal balance was forgiven in 2015. For the $10 million loan, $7 million of the principal balance was forgiven this year — and the remaining $3 million could be forgiven if the company meets certain job goals. So far, it has earned $1 million of the tax credits.
In addition, Charter could receive up to $8 million in non-First Five Plus tax credits.
During Malloy’s time as governor, First Five Plus attracted criticism from some legislators and business leaders for apparent favoritism toward large companies and not setting stringent benchmarks. The funds allocated to Charter, however, have elicited few complaints.
“I am glad to see that Charter Communications has used the state investment made by Gov. Malloy to help their company grow and make a positive impact on the job market and community,” said state Sen. Henri Martin, R-Bristol, the ranking senator on the state legislature’s Commerce Committee. “While this was a positive outcome, it is not always the case in these scenarios. We need to be mindful of the risks and the real return on the investment when we use state dollars as bargaining tools. Beyond incentive programs, Connecticut needs to do a lot of introspection to improve our business climate.”
‘Headwinds’ for state’s economy
Charter’s growth underscores the resilience of the state’s corporate sector. There are 14 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state — as many as there were in 2012.
The expansion of large companies such as Charter and the arrival of Philip Morris International, Digital Currency Group, iCapital Network and ITT — which cumulatively plan to create several hundred local positions in the next few years — raises hopes that the state can finally forge sustained jobs growth.
By January 2020, the state had recovered only 83 percent of the positions lost in the 2008-2010 recession. During March and April 2020, the state shed about 292,000 jobs as a result of pandemic-sparked shutdowns. But after 10 consecutive months of job gains, Connecticut has regained 73 percent of the positions lost during the first wave of the pandemic.
“We still have a labor issue, in Fairfield County and the rest of Connecticut, that we need to address in order to truly unlock our economic potential,” DiPentima said. “So we have some headwinds, but we probably have more tailwinds than we’ve had in a while.”