Hartford Business Journal

10 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 24, 2024 DEAL WATCH | BUYERS & SELLERS Ad agency CEO buys Glastonbury office building for $2.65M; will relocate company By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com T he CEO of one of the region's largest marketing and advertising firms has purchased a Glaston- bury office building, where he will relocate his company. A limited liability company controlled by Cronin Chairman and CEO Mark Demuro has paid $2.65 million for a 30,000-square-foot office building at 300 Winding Brook Drive, according to Michael Guidicelli, a broker with Regions Commercial LLC who brokered the deal on behalf of the buyer. Cronin for the last 30 years has been located at another Glastonbury office building (50 Nye Road), where it has leased about 19,000 square feet of space. That building was purchased by the town of Glaston- bury in 2023 for $3.15 million, and the board of educa- tion will be taking over space there, Guidicelli said. The town last year also purchased nearby 55 Nye Road, which is being knocked down to make way for a new affordable housing development. Cronin will occupy about 10,000 square feet at 300 Winding Brook Drive, which was built in 1983 and sits on 3.93 acres, Guidicelli said. As of the fourth quarter of 2023, Cronin reported 40 employees in Connecticut and $74.2 million in gross billings, according to Hart- ford Business Journal's Book of Lists. The Winding Brook Drive building was sold by WB Partners LLC, which is controlled by Robert W. Fion- della, who is the former CEO and chairman of life insurer Phoenix Cos., which was acquired by Nassau Financial Group in 2016. Fiondella's son, Jeff Fiondella, is a founding partner at Glastonbury accounting firm FML, which is the anchor tenant at 300 Winding Brook and will remain in the building on a long-term lease, Guidicelli said. The building last traded hands in 2005 for $2.3 million, town records show. Once Cronin moves to its new home, around Aug. 1, the building will be 100% occupied, Guidicelli said. Besides FML and Cronin, other tenants include Solinsky EyeCare and a physical therapist. Farmington-based JRI Advisors represented the seller in the deal. 300 Winding Brook Drive, Glastonbury. PHOTO | COSTAR NEW HAVEN Three bioscience companies have signed leases to operate out of the Elm City Bioscience Center in New Haven. XingImaging LLC, Revalia Bio Inc. and General Biological Corp. announced they will occupy nearly 40,000 square feet of the 113,600-square-foot building at 55 Church St., joining other companies there, including Modifi Biosciences, Alphina Therapeutics, BioMed X, and Yale XR Pediatrics. The building now has roughly 18,000 square feet of available space for lease, according to prop- erty owner The Hurley Group, which converted part of the property to lab space starting in 2021, amid height- ened demand from the city's growing bioscience industry. More than half of the building is lab space, and the remainder is office and commercial space, said Darlene Reilly, The Hurley Group's real estate director. Reilly said the goal is to eventually convert the entire building into lab space when office tenant leases expire. WATERTOWN An industrial lighting company based in Morris has purchased a former manufacturing plant in a nearby Litchfield County town. WBCM LLC and Mark Zampini recently bought property at 1012 Buckingham St., in Watertown, from Prime Engineered Components Inc. for $2.7 million, according to town land records. Zampini owns i2Systems, an advanced LED lighting company that dates back 35 years and is headquar- tered in Morris. i2Systems makes specialized lighting for industrial properties, large residential or corporate buildings, elevators, and mass transit vehicles, including boats, according to the company website. Company officials could not be reached for comment, but broker Ed Godin Jr., of Middlebury-based Godin Property Brokers, represented the buyer in the deal. Godin said i2Systems will likely use the new Watertown building for company expansion, produc- tion and warehousing, keeping the 64,000-square-foot headquarters at 355 Bantam Lake Road in Morris, which is owned by the Zampini Family LLC. WEST HARTFORD The owner of a West Hart- ford-based marketing firm has acquired for $567,500 a mixed-use building on North Main Street. Heather Cisz Mazzola, owner and director of strategy for Linked Media, has purchased 67 North Main St., located less than a mile from her marketing firm's current home at 62 LaSalle Road, in West Hartford Center. The 1,846-square-foot North Main Street building looks like a residential home but is set up with commercial office space on the main floor and a 700-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment on the second floor. The building was previously owned by Robert Kor, an attorney whose law practice was located in the building for 20 years. Kor recently moved his practice to 15 North Main St. Cisz Mazzola said she acquired the building with the intent to relocate her business, which has five employees including herself. Linked Media, which will mark its eighth year in business in July, has annual revenue of about $2.5 million, Cisz Mazzola said. CHESHIRE A Cheshire office building has been sold to a local development company for more than $1.6 million. The single-story office building at 10 McKee Place was sold by Carina LLC, and principals Angelo and Judy Volta, to Nosal Builders of Cheshire for $1.675 million. The building, erected in 1983 and set on 6.8 acres, is located within the Cheshire Industrial Park and features more than 17,400 square feet of space. It's not clear how the buyer plans to use the property. Nosal Development officials could not be reached for comment. According to its website, Nosal is a general contracting, building, construction management and design firm that serves commer- cial, industrial, municipal, and residen- tial clients throughout Connecticut. WEST HARTFORD After more than 40 years in Hartford, Barall & Konover Floors is relocating to a neighboring town. On June 7, the 87-year-old commer- cial flooring contractor acquired 94 Reed Ave., a vacant 19,200-square- foot commercial/industrial building in West Hartford, for $1.18 million. B&K has also listed its two build- ings — including its main office and warehouse at 714 Blue Hills Ave., in Hartford, and a smaller retail building at 730 Blue Hills Ave., in Bloomfield — and a vacant lot for sale for a combined $995,000. The listing includes the land for each building, as well as the undevel- oped property at 736 Blue Hills Ave., in Bloomfield. Combined, the three properties total 2.17 acres. David Konover, grandson of B&K co-founder and namesake David Konover, said that his business is relocating because it has outgrown its current location and wants to consolidate into one building. He said he hopes to be fully moved into the new location by "no later than the end of the year." "We are going to put a new roof on it next month and then have a full interior office renovation to complete, but will begin to utilize the warehouse space immediately," he said. The Blue Hills Avenue proper- ties are listed by Hartford-based Sentry Commercial.

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