Antares Investment Acquires Pitney Bowes Complex for $33M

The Antares partnership signed a contract to buy the property in late January. Pitney Bowes put the main plant campus on the market for sale last September. Antares is looking to redevelop the property, which now consists of approximately 800,000 sf of vacant office and industrial space. Antares has received approval from the city for its master plan for the property that calls for a mixed-use development of residential, retail and other ancillary uses. In total, the project will total more than one million sf of new construction and redeveloped space.

The property, located at the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Atlantic Street, was the headquarters for Pitney Bowes from 1920 to 1985 when the firm relocated two blocks away to its current corporate headquarters building at One Elmcroft Rd. At the end of 2004, the company vacated the site entirely when it ceased manufacturing operations at the property and shifted some office personnel at the complex to other Pitney Bowes locations in Connecticut.

Brokers in the sales deal included Jamie Covello, executive director, and Brad Jones, director, of Cushman & Wakefield of New York, who serve as real estate advisors to Pitney Bowes for its national real estate requirements. In addition, James Fagan, senior managing director and head of Cushman & Wakefield's Fairfield County, Westchester County and Long Island offices, Patrick Colwell, senior director, Andrew Merin, executive vice president, and David Bernhaut, executive director with Cushman & Wakefield Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group, handled the marketing of the property and the procurement of the purchaser.

A significant number of investors expressed interest in acquiring the property, which has been renamed Peninsula Bay. "The offering attracted interest from more than 100 regional and national investor/developers," says Covello. "It was rare to have a development parcel of this size, scope and unsurpassed location available in lower Fairfield County."

The sales transaction and the promised Antares mixed-use project may finally be the catalyst that will help revitalize the South End of Stamford, Colwell says.