Norwalk office building on lookout for buyers
A Norwalk office building alongside Interstate 95 has been put up for sale, after undergoing $6 million in renovations the past five years under its Bostonbased owner.
The capital markets group of Cushman & Wakefield is handling inquiries for 40 Richards Ave. without listing publicly an asking price. The building was purchased in 2013 by The Davis Cos. for $16.5 million.
More than two dozen companies have offices at 40 Richards Ave., including Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, the eyewear designer L’Amy and Potoo Marketing, which helps companies deal with resellers providing inadequate services on Amazon and other websites.
Constructed in 1985, the building at 40 Richards Ave. totals nearly 150,000 square feet of space and has an occupancy rate of 81 percent. Norwalk’s I-95 office corridor had an
overall vacancy rate of 35 percent on average in the first quarter of this year, according to the commercial real estate brokerage firm JLL, with premier buildings having a vacancy rate of 25 percent.
The Davis Cos. also owns the office building at 200 Connecticut Ave., one of nine in southwestern Connecticut in which it lists an ownership interest with others, including 2150 Post Road in Fairfield and Wilton Corporate Park on the Danbury Road in Wilton.
A Wilton Corporate Park building at 40 Danbury Road has been on the market for several months, with the offices notable as the corporate offices of Nielsen which lists its formal headquarters in New York City; and other
tenants including the commodities trading arm of Louis Dreyfus, TD Bank and Westport Capital.
The Davis Cos. has sold off more local properties over the past several years, including the Westport Center for Health complex on Riverside Avenue in Westport, which sold this past February for $18.7 million.
Other Davis Cos. divestments in past years include the 15 Old Danbury Road headquarters in Wilton of Commonfund, which manages investment portfolios on behalf of other nonprofits like universities, foundations and union pensions; and 1000 Bridgeport Ave. in Shelton.