Hartford Business Journal

12 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 22, 2024 AT A GLANCE MetroHartford Alliance Industry: Economic Development Top Executive: David Griggs, President & CEO New HQ: City Place I, 185 Asylum St., Hartford Employees: 15 Website: metrohartford.com Contact: 860-372-8787 David Griggs, president and CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance, stands in front of City Place I, Hartford's tallest office tower, where the Alliance will be moving its headquarters in August. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER Site Selection MetroHartford Alliance to relocate HQ, as efforts to build insurtech corridor ramp up office vacancy rate is even higher, at 36.3%. Griggs said the Alliance is an investor- and member-based organi- zation that has a fiduciary responsi- bility "to put as many of our investor dollars into programming and 'actual work' as possible," while also saving money. "The irony is not lost on me, but the solution for our office market is larger than any one company or organization," Griggs said. "One could argue that our decision is actually part of the solution — by moving from an older Class 'C' building to a Class 'A' building, we are reducing the vacancy of our highest-value assets and allowing the old office to be converted to housing, which is desperately needed." The Alliance's former Pratt Street offices are being considered for a conversion to apartments by landlord The Simon Konover Co. Griggs also noted that the Alliance could have moved anywhere, but chose City Place I, in space formerly occupied by Bank of America Private Bank, because it wanted to remain in the "heart of the city, close to all the action." "We could have gone into any building, but what we really wanted was to have better access for our investors and the public," he said. "We needed to be accessible, and on the fifth floor of Pratt Street we're not very accessible." The Alliance's staff of 15 has been operating on a hybrid work schedule — three days in office, two days By David Krechevsky davidk@hartfordbusiness.com A fter more than 15 years at 31 Pratt St., the MetroHartford Alliance is relocating its downtown Hartford headquarters. The private economic development organization has signed a five-year lease to occupy about 4,500 square feet of mezzanine-level space in City Place I, a 38-story, 884,669-square- foot Class A property that stands as Hartford's tallest office building. MetroHartford Alliance President and CEO David Griggs confirmed the move during a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal. The new lease begins on Aug. 1. "We have a little bit of work that we've got to do to the place; not much, but we need to 'MHA' it all," he quipped, adding he expects to be fully operating from the new location by Sept. 1. Until then, the Alliance has been granted temporary space in the city's iconic "Boat Building," at 1 American Row. In addition to its role as a regional private economic development agency, the Alliance also runs several other organizations that will be moving to the new space, including the Hartford Chamber of Commerce; HYPE, a program for young profes- sionals; the Connecticut Health Council, which recently hired a new executive director; and Connecticut IFS, an insurance and financial services cluster. Griggs said the impetus for the move was that the Alliance's Pratt Street lease expired at the end of April, but there were other considerations as well. "We had, at one point, a few other … organizations that shared our space, and a few of those either became defunct or moved out," he said. The organizations that relocated were the Hartford Business Improve- ment District, which moved to State House Square, and iQuilt, which moved to the Boat Building. "So, we were paying for a ton of space that we just didn't use," Griggs said. The Alliance leased approximately 10,000 square feet at its Pratt Street office; the new City Place I space will be roughly half that size, he said. Fiduciary responsibility Griggs admitted there is some irony in an economic development organization, which is trying to boost the city's economic prospects, downsizing its office space, at a time when the Hartford office market is struggling. About 27% of Class A downtown Hartford office space was vacant at the end of the first quarter of 2024, according to CBRE. Cushman & Wakefield estimates the downtown

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