New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Large CT office complex being put up for auction
A 288,000-square-foot office complex in Wallingford near Interstate 91 that is the Connecticut headquarters for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield will be put up for auction next month.
The Campus at Greenhill, which is located at 108 Leigus Road, is scheduled to go up for auction on the Ten-X auction platform. The auction will be held from April 17-19 and there is a $1 million minimum bid for the property, which is owned by a Miami-based investment company, Rialto Capital Management.
Interest in the property is high, said Robert Motley, a senior director with brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield, which is marketing the property. There are over 70 registered bidders for the auction, Motley said.
The three-story building, which was built in 2007, is about 40 percent leased, according to Motley. The two largest tenants are the engineering firm Burns & McDonnell and Anthem Blue Cross, which has had its Connecticut headquarters there since 2011.
Both companies occupy about 48,000 square feet. Motley said that when Anthem first moved into the property, the company occupied over 200,000 square feet in the building.
The other two tenants are Liberty Mutual, which occupies about 14,000 square feet and Sulzer, a Swiss engineering company.
Stephanie DuBois, a New Hampshire-based spokeswoman for Anthem, did not respond to questions by Hearst Connecticut Media about how many employees the company has in the building or whether its future plans include remaining in Wallingford. The company also has office space in Rocky Hill, according to Motley.
Instead, DuBois said in a written statement Anthem “consistently assesses our office space needs to align with our hybrid work model, which allows associates to leverage the office based on their work needs with the flexibility of working remotely.”
“We recently redesigned our space in Wallingford with new individual workspaces, collaborative meeting and training spaces to create improved work environments for our employees and enhance our strong culture.” she said. “We have been providing access to quality health care services to consumers in Connecticut for more than 80 years, and we are committed to remaining in the Wallingford community.”
The building, which is surrounded by 104 acres, was originally being built to be the headquarters of Mortgage Lenders Network, a subprime lender. But Mortgage Lenders' collapse in the home
mortgage crisis that eventually resulted in the 2008 recession. The building sat empty until late 2011 when Anthem announced it was relocating its Connecticut headquarters from North Haven.
Motley said at one time in the commercial real estate business, selling a property via auction “was the move of last resort.”
“You can toss that old view out the window,” he said. “Auctions are now highly efficient and they get thousands and thousands of eyeballs looking at the property.”
Rialto Capital Management officials weren't immediately available Tuesday to comment why they are selling the property.
Motley said office space in Connecticut “is a challenging market.”
“There is clearly a flight to quality office space and this building does not want for tenants because of the quality of the building,” he said. “Companies are moving to the
best space they can because they're taking half the space they used to.”
The building has a cafeteria and what Motley calls “a very robust fitness center” that includes space for Pilates and yoga.
“We strongly believe this building is head and shoulders above any other property in the region,” he said.
Joe Mira, chairman of Wallingford's Economic Development Commission, said he is confident the property will be very appealing to bidders at the auction.
“It's an excellent location and a good piece of property, so it should do well,” Mira said.
He said Anthem's space reductions in the building are the result of a combination of factors, including COVID-19 and the impact that Affordable Care Act had on all insurance companies.