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8 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 27, 2026 Deal Watch Carbon Capture Machine has leased 8,306 square feet for its new headquarters and laboratory at 60 Commerce Drive in Trumbull. Contributed Photo Tech startup that turns CO2 into minerals plans to open Trumbull HQ working in Trumbull within three years as the company hires chemists, systems engineers and, eventually, a management team. The Trumbull space is bigger than CCM needs right now. Scott said he plans to fill the extra room with a handful of startups he has invested in or collaborates with through Alliance Tech- nologies, creating what he describes as an "innovation ecosystem" rather than an incubator. He said the facility could eventually house about 50 workers. The company earlier this year completed real-world testing in Cyprus, capturing and converting emissions from a marine diesel engine, and Scott said he expects full commercialization within the next year to 18 months. CCM has funded its development largely without giving up equity, collecting roughly $15 million in grants and competition winnings, including two U.S. Department of Energy awards. Scott said the company may skip a traditional venture fundraising round altogether, instead pairing continued grant funding with strategic investors from the industries it plans to serve. The Trumbull lease came together through a decades-old relationship. Commercial real estate broker John Hannigan, principal at Choyce Peterson, who has represented Scott's companies for around 30 years, found the space before it hit the market, Scott said. Avison Young's Sean Cahill repre- sented the landlord, Cambridge Hanover. Scott said he chose Connecticut because of the state's quality assur- ance talent, strong universities and New Haven's biotech cluster, which he believes make it an ideal place for advanced manufacturing. "I'm eager to positively impact my state," he said. By Andrew Larson alarson@hartfordbusiness.com F or the past four years, Carbon Capture Machine has operated in "stealth mode," its CEO said — zero marketing, barely a website — while developing technology he believes could transform environ- mental waste into revenue. Now, the startup is stepping out of the dark, signing an 8,306-square-foot lease for office and lab space at 60 Commerce Drive in Trumbull. CEO Lance Scott said the site will serve as the central hub for CCM, which until now, has been split between a laboratory in Aberdeen, Scotland, and a prototyping facility in Dayton, Ohio. The company has been developing technology that captures carbon dioxide from smoke- stacks before it reaches the atmosphere and converts it into minerals, such as calcium carbonate, that are used as additives in concrete, paint, paper and other everyday products. Rather than burying captured CO2 underground, as some larger carbon capture ventures propose, CCM aims to turn emissions into a product manu- facturers will buy. Scott said he sees no shortage of potential customers close to home, pointing to Bridgeport's natural gas power plant as the kind of industrial emitter the company's equipment could one day serve. Longer term, he hopes to build a manufacturing facility in Bridgeport — a city he has personal history with, having attended the University of Bridgeport in the 1980s. Scott, a Weston resident, acquired the company in May 2022 through his firm Alliance Technologies, which both invests in and helps run advanced manufacturing companies. He discovered CCM, then a University of Aberdeen spinoff, at a conference in Washington, D.C., after the startup was a finalist in an international XPRIZE competition for carbon conversion. CCM currently has about 14 full- and part-time employees across its loca- tions. Scott projects 30 to 35 people Lower Fairfield County office availability falls as conversions shrink inventory By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com L ower Fairfield County's office availability rate declined over the past year as more office buildings were removed from the market for adaptive reuse projects, according to a new report from commercial real estate brokerage Choyce Peterson. The firm's semiannual survey found 28% of office space was available at midyear in 90 Class A office buildings totaling 16.4 million square feet across Stamford, Norwalk, Greenwich and West- port. That's unchanged from year-end 2025 but down from 29.4% a year earlier. Available space totaled about 4.6 million square feet at the end of June. The report also shows Lower Fairfield County's office inventory continues to shrink as buildings are converted to other uses. The survey now includes 90 office buildings totaling 16.4 million square feet, down Lance Scott Office buildings removed from Lower Fairfield County inventory for redevelopment since mid-2024 BUILDING CITY BUILDING SIZE ADDRESS (sq. f.t) 120 Long Ridge Rd. Stamford 310,000 800 Long Ridge Rd. Stamford 275,000 201 Broad St. Stamford 245,000 201 Merritt 7 Norwalk 241,584 101 Merritt 7 Norwalk 225,000 177 Broad St. Stamford 197,000 535 Connecticut Ave. Norwalk 179,292 1 East Weaver St. Greenwich 137,245 TOTAL 1,810,121 Source: Choyce Peterson Inc. Lower Fairfield County Office Market Survey from 94 buildings totaling 17.2 million square feet a year ago. More than 1.8 million square feet of office space has been removed from the survey since mid-2024 because of planned adaptive reuse projects, according to Choyce Peterson. John Hannigan, co-founder and principal of the Norwalk-based brokerage firm, said he expects both office availability and inventory to continue gradually declining as more buildings are converted to other uses. While the region's overall avail- ability rate held steady over the past six months, he said the headline figure masks differing trends across individual markets, with Stamford recording significant leasing activity while Greenwich saw several large blocks of space return to the market. Hannigan said leasing activity also continues to be driven by companies relocating within Fairfield County. Many tenants are downsizing and seeking higher-quality office space, a trend he expects to continue over the next four to five years as long-term leases expire. At the same time, some companies that previously reduced their footprints are finding they need additional space again to accommodate growth, he said. Among the four submarkets, Stamford recorded the strongest improvement over the past year, with its availability rate falling from 32.3% at midyear 2025 to 26.5% at midyear 2026. Green- wich's availability increased from 13.7% to 20.2% during that period, while Norwalk's availability edged up from 41.7% to 42.1%, the highest among the four markets. Westport remained the region's tightest market, with availability rising slightly from 11.4% to 12.4%. Hannigan said landlords continue to face financial pressures because rents have not increased fast enough to keep pace with higher construction and labor costs. Charlene O'Connell, vice president at Choyce Peterson, said the market has become increasingly nuanced, with tenants often finding that the amount of move-in ready, high-quality space is much more limited than overall availability figures suggest.