Altria Group to Vacate 625,000-SF Rye Brook Facility

The move was announced by the Altria Group and subsidiary Kraft Foods, which unveiled a new global organizational structure to streamline its operations. According to Michael Pfeil, VP of corporate communications, a total of 650 Kraft Foods International employees will be shifted to other Kraft facilities, including the Kraft Foods Technical Center complex in Tarrytown where the firm currently employs 550 workers. Also moving out of the Rye Brook campus will be 120 Philip Morris International employees, along with 240 Altria Corporate Services workers.

The complex, which was the former headquarters for General Foods and later housed operations of Philip Morris International, totals approximately 625,000 sf in two buildings. The main building 800 Westchester Ave. totals approximately 560,000 sf and the adjoining 760 Westchester Ave. is approximately 65,000 sf in size. The property also includes 500,000 sf of enclosed parking and a large man-made pond at the entrance to the property in front of the 800 Westchester Ave. building.

The company has hired CB Richard Ellis to market the complex for sale. Jeffrey Dunne, vice chairman for CBRE's New York Tri-State Investment Team, says the marketing plan is now being formulated and that it is too early to say whether the campaign will be focused on finding a single user or multiple tenants for the complex.

Dean Shapiro, senior managing director of CBRE, says the decision by Altria to put the property on the market for sale will cause a 2% increase in Westchester County's office availability rate, which at year's end 2003 stood at 13.4%

Commenting on the sale of 800 Westchester Ave., Shapiro relates, "I think it is a continuation of the evolution of the market away from large users." He notes that many large corporate headquarters requirements are gravitating away from markets like Westchester and Fairfield County and moving to more urban locales.

While large single-user buildings have been "problematic" in the past for Westchester, recently the county has fared well and has filled space relatively quickly at the former Chevron/Texaco headquarters in Harrison and at two former IBM complexes in Mount Pleasant and Rye Brook.

Shapiro says that while major headquarters facilities are not coming to the suburbs, major corporations have looked to the Northern New York City suburbs to decentralize their operations after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Michael Mudd, EVP, global corporate affairs for Kraft Foods, says that of the 650 Kraft employees in Rye Brook, approximately 450 workers with its Desserts and Post divisions along with marketing services, ecommerce and information systems operations, will relocate to the Tarrytown region. The move will require the company to search for additional space in the Tarrytown area. At deadline, Kraft officials were unsure of just how much new space the company requires. Approximately 100 workers from Kraft's International Commercial Group in Rye Brook will be relocated to Kraft's corporate headquarters in Northfield, IL, and another 100 workers from Kraft's Latin America Region headquarters operations in Rye Brook will be shifted to facilities in Miami. The Altria corporate services staff will be shifted to the company's corporate headquarters at 120 Park Ave. in New York City. At deadline, it was unclear where the 120 Philip Morris International workers will be shipped off to.

The 800 Westchester Ave. complex was completed in the early 1980s and served as the headquarters for General Foods. About a decade ago, Kraft briefly put 800 Westchester Ave. on the market for sale. However, the property attracted no serious bidders and was quickly pulled off the market.