Antares To Spend $50M to Upgrade UST HQ

GREENWICH, CT-After spending $130 million to acquire the 160,000-sf property, locally based Antares Investment Partners plans to undertake a $50-million capital improvement program on the UST Inc. headquarters building here. Joseph P. Beninati and James P. Cabrera tell GlobeSt.com that the capital improvement initiative will involve upgrades to the landscaping, interiors along with tenant work at the building.

The Antares executives say that once those renovations are complete, they expect rent at the property with water views to approach $175 per sf. Antares acquired the property at 100 West Putnam Ave. a few days ago.

Antares has not yet selected its capital partners on the transaction, and is in the process of evaluating extensive interest from the debt and mezzanine capital markets, company officials note.

“We see tremendous opportunities in Fairfield County and our commitment to invest another $180 million in this acquisition and renovations is a testament to our confidence that Greenwich has become the hedge fund and private equity capital of the world,” Beninati says.

Antares is expected to name an architect for the capital upgrade program and expects occupancy to begin in early 2008.

“Our goal is to bring, for the first time in Greenwich commercial real estate history, an innovative, ready built environment for hedge funds and private equity firms that need to be in a building designed for them by owners who have decades of experience meeting the needs of financial institutions,” Cabrera says. “Greenwich has reached the point where all of the limited partners are now making their regular rounds of meetings to visit the hedge fund and private equity managers who have put down roots in the town.”