Stamford benefits firm moving offices to Norwalk
Two years after a big merger to create Alera Group, the corporate benefits consultant CBP is moving its Stamford office to Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk.
Brokerage firm Avison Young reported CBP’s move to Norwalk, with the firm taking nearly 10,000 square feet of space at 535 Connecticut Ave. for an eight-year commitment, relocating from its current offices at 1100 Summer St. in Stamford.
Alera Group was formed in 2017 in the combination of two-dozen benefits and insurance firms nationally including CBP, which was founded in 1996 as Creative Benefits Planning.
CBP’s head of operations Rosa Torcasio told Hearst Connecticut Media that Norwalk offered a better centralized location than Stamford. She said CBP will employ 40 people in Norwalk, evenly split between office and workstation space.
“We toured quite a few locations in Norwalk, but 535 Connecticut Avenue offers a café, workout facility and transportation to and from the train station, which was a very important factor for us during the decision making process,” Torcasio stated in an email.
An affiliate of Greenwich-based Hanover Real Estate Partners bought the offices at 535 Connecticut Ave. last year for $16.5 million from Matrix Realty Group, one of two big Connecticut transactions along with Danbury’s sprawling Matrix Corporate Center that is being reimagined by Fairfieldbased Summit Development as the Ridge at Danbury, with a mix of residential, commercial and retail space.
An online brokerage listing in February listed asking rents at 535 Connecticut Ave. at $28 a square foot.
Crius Energy has been the largest tenant of 535 Connecticut Ave., listing its headquarters office on the sixth floor and previously having space on the fifth floor where CBP is moving its own operations.
Crius moved to Norwalk from Stamford in 2016 with $10 million in incentives from the state of Connecticut, only to downsize significantly after taking an announced $436 million acquisition bid by Irving, Texas-based Vistra Energy that was subsequently scaled back to $378 million.
Alera becomes the latest employee benefits advisory firm to adopt Norwalk as a regional office, with Aon and predecessor company Hewitt Associates having long had offices in the city; and Marsh & McLennan and subsidiary Mercer having offices a few doors over in the Merritt 7 Corporate Park.
The trade publication Employee Benefits Adviser ranked Alera among the top 20 consultancies in the country in its first year of operation, with reported revenue of $37.3 million.