Danbury offices pitched as NYC alternative

The owner of a trophy building overlooking Danbury Municipal Airport is seeking $45 million for the property — more than 40 percent above the purchase price less than four years ago.

The sale price is something of a test on the appeal of offices at the outermost commuter orbit of New York City during the era of the coronavirus.

Lee Farm Corporate Park is home to the Connecticut half of IQVIA’s dual headquarters office — the other is in Charlotte, N.C. — with the company among the largest employers based in Connecticut. IQVIA had about 1,000 employees in Danbury prior to the pandemic forcing remote working arrangements, according to city documents. The company reported 70,000 employees globally entering this year.

Also at Lee Farm is a Wells Fargo commercial finance unit that was formerly part of General Electric’s Norwalk-based GE Capital division. And Regus operates an office suite center in the building, which totals about 215,000 square feet of space on five floors.

Jim Fagan, executive managing director in the Stamford office of commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, said it is a notable office sale listing because of Lee Farm’s 90-minute drive to Midtown Manhattan.

“This may be a post-pandemic test case on whether or not the market will pay up for buildings, well occupied and well maintained, in the suburbs,” Fagan said. “If people are going to live further and further out from New York City, is this where they will live?”

Lee Farm was completed in 1988, two years after the Danbury Fair mall it overlooks and near the tail end of Connecticut’s heyday in suburban office park construction.

Now, Lee Farm’s ownership group is exploring whether it can similarly make hay on the building. Property records list the owner as a limited liability company called CT Property & Realty. The group purchased Lee Farm in October 2017 for $31.8 million, nearly double what Lee Farm’s previous owners, Summit Development and the Grossman Companies, paid for the complex.

CT Property & Realty lists its principal member as Amit Kort, a Florida resident and real estate owner in the New York City region who did not respond immediately Friday to an email for comment on the decision to put Lee Farm up for sale.

The Danbury market trailed only downtown Stamford last year for new leases and renewals, Cushman & Wakefield reported last month, capped by Nuvance Health’s decision to move 500 New York employees to the Summit at Danbury complex. Summit purchased that property after the 2017 sale of Lee Farm and is redeveloping for a mix of uses including residential.