Recent moves bring stability to key financial sector
Recent moves bring stability to key sector
A banking giant has committed for the long term to Stamford — and so have a number of other industry powerhouses.
Royal Bank of Scotland’s announcement last month that it would sell its regional headquarters building at 600 Washington Blvd., but remain as a tenant at the downtown property, delivered a major boost for the area’s financial-services sector. While the company has shed hundreds of local jobs in recent years, its decision to stay demonstrated the continued draw of southwestern Connecticut, particularly Stamford, to finance firms looking for a central location and access to a skilled workforce.
“Stamford is still a good place to do business,” said John Knopf, an associate professor of finance at the University of Connecticut. “You have issues such as taxation and traffic, but there is still a high quality of life. And the people that run these businesses think about the quality of life.”
Major local operations
RBS’ new plan resolved lingering questions about its future in Stamford. The bank has laid off some 750 employees at the Washington Boulevard offices in the past three and a half years, reflecting companywide downsizing in the wake of nine years of losses and government penalties for misconduct that cost the firm billions of dollars.
Its lease would run for 10 years, according to its real estate broker JLL. RBS now occupies about 90,000 square feet in the 12-floor building, where about 500 of its employees still work.
“Our NatWest Markets U.S. sales and trading operations in Stamford remain a core part of our business, providing our customers with access to the U.S. dollar markets across currencies, rates and financing,” the company said in a statement.
RBS opened the steel-andglass office block at 600 Washington in 2009. A package of up to $100 million in state tax credits supported a company investment of $400 million in the property.
“They clearly see Stamford as their largest U.S. presence,” said Catherine Smith, the state’s economic development commissioner. “They’ve been through a big period of layoffs, but hopefully they’re done with that.”
The RBS cuts created the space for other tenants at 600 Washington. In 2016, UBS moved its own reduced Stamford operations from the tower and annex across the street at 677 Washington Blvd., which now stands as the city’s largest office vacancy.
UBS occupies approximately 120,000 square feet at 600 Washington, while Citizens Bank takes about 35,000 square feet.
Arrivals and expansions
In the same building as RBS, Bank of America plans to launch this fall an approximately 115,000-square-foot center.
A few blocks away, Webster Bank and hedge fund Tudor Investment are set to open offices this summer at 200 Elm St. Covering a total of about 50,000 square feet, the space for the two firms will, respectively, house a commercial-banking hub for Webster and Tudor’s new headquarters. Tudor is moving its main offices from King Street, in northwest Greenwich.
Among recent arrivals, Westport-based Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, opened late last year offices at 2200 Atlantic St., in the city’s South End.
In response to a query by Hearst Connecticut Media, the firm did not immediately provide details on its operations at 2200 Atlantic. Recent estimates by third parties have pegged the hedge fund’s headcount there between 300 and 800 employees, with a large number of IT specialists and other operational positions.
Around the time that Bridgewater opened its Stamford offices, private equity firm First Reserve relocated its headquarters from Greenwich to the Shippan Landing complex, in Stamford’s Shippan section.
Meanwhile, a number of major firms with longstanding operations in the city have continued to expand.
Consumer financial-services firm Synchrony’s headcount at its headquarters at 777 Long Ridge has steadily grown since its 2014 spinoff from GE and now numbers more than 600.
Point72 Asset Management, the investment firm that manages the fortune of billionaire hedge fund investor Steven Cohen, employs about 500 at its headquarters at 72 Cummings Point Road, several times the total when it was founded in 2014.
Aiming to stay competitive
Despite the recent growth, combined employment in financial services and insurance at the end of 2017 in the Stamford-Norwalk-Bridgeport area still lagged by about 15 percent the total from 10 years ago, according to the most recent data from the state Department of Labor.
Looking ahead, a number of industry advocates worry Connecticut’s chronic financial stability — and the prospect of rising taxes — hamper its competitiveness with states with lower tax rates.
At the same time, several finance firms have received substantial state subsidies, whose allocations are based on recipient companies hitting targets for retaining and adding positions.
Through the Department of Economic and Community Development’s First Five Plus program, Bridgewater has received $22 million in forgivable loans and grants. Synchrony is eligible for up to $20 million in grants through the same program. Greenwich-based AQR Capital Management could qualify for up to $35 million in FF+ funding.
“The state may be a little more expensive than some parts of the country, but relative to big financial markets in New York — and, to a lesser extent, in Boston and San Francisco — we look like a bargain,” Smith said. “And these firms are staying because they like the location, the talent we have and because their employees like living in the state.”