Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com June 5, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 17 the 29-year-old office- building's staid, dark wood in its lobby/ atrium with lighter colors and a geomet- ric wall hanging. A new outdoor patio will expand seating options for the build- ing's cafeteria, and a proposed indoor arcade/lounge area will appeal to tenants' staff of Millennials. It's all meant, say building owners/man- agers, space designers and lease brokers, to modernize spaces in their decades-old edi- fices at a time when tenants are eager to have offices that help them attract and retain tal- ent, particularly younger workers. "We're seeing a big push toward more ame- nities,'' said architect Tony Amenta, a princi- pal in downtown Hartford's Amenta Emma Architects, which redesigned the lobby of One Financial Plaza, known as the Gold Building. "From what we're seeing, landlords want to position older buildings in keeping with amenities newer buildings have.'' "But it's really about attracting a workforce,'' added Joel Grieco, executive vice president in the Hartford office for realty broker Cushman & Wakefield, which handles leasing for CityPlace and 500 Corporate Ridge. "It's the most current thinking on what motivates people and makes them the most productive in the workplace.'' The major difference now, Grieco says, is that amenities that were once limited to newer, high-profile office space are showing up in older buildings. They provide, he said, a relatively inexpensive way to stand out against the com- petition and to attract or retain tenants, who in turn rely on them to attract and retain talent. That push also extends, Amenta says, to reconfiguring individual tenants' office spac- es to include more open areas, small fitness rooms, and kitchenettes, or "work cafes,'' equipped with Wi-Fi, flat-screen TVs and food-beverage vending machines that allow them to double as dining and meeting rooms. One downtown Hartford financial company is looking at integrating some of those fea- tures into its office space, Amenta said. The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has a head start remaking much of the space at its Asylum Hill campus, with recruit- ment and retention in mind. Among the touches is a renovated technical "help desk,'' evoking Apple Inc.'s "Genius Bar'' setup in its stores, and an upgraded fitness center. Susan Johnson, head of diversity and inclu- sion at The Hartford, said the renovated offices "create a more contemporary environment that appeals to all workers, including Millennials." For example, The Stag's renovated head- quarters has an open design with natural light, state-of-the-art technology, Wi-Fi throughout the building, collaboration spaces to encour- age teamwork, soft seating in common areas, video-conferencing capabilities, a fitness cen- ter and on-site coffee shops, she said. Its Tech Express help desk, Johnson said, "has the look and feel of a modern computer retail space, including a vending machine for common computer parts that need to be replaced." Suburban facelift Four years ago, Boston landlord KS Partners bought four Rocky Hill office buildings — three it still owns. One of those is 500 Enterprise Drive, a four-story, 306,000-square-foot office building in the sprawling Corporate Ridge office park. Aside from the lobby makeover and new outdoor patio being installed, KS added an upper-floor multimedia conference room, a new roof, updated the building's heating/cooling sys- tems, and resurfaced the parking lot, said KS regional real estate director Thomas Hulk Jr. An existing conference room adjacent to the build- ing's cafeteria will soon be converted to a game- room/lounge area with TV, foosball and air- hockey tables, and a fitness center will follow. "It breathes new life into an existing build- ing," Hulk said. Among 500 Enterprise's two dozen tenants is Acadia Insurance, a unit of Greenwich insur- er W.R. Berkley Corp., that houses a regional team of agents/brokers in the building. Cali- fornia global civil-engineering giant AECOM Technical Services Inc. has a branch there. Zurich Insurance and AT&T, too, are tenants. "A lot of our tenants' own [worker] demo- graphics are changing from an older to a younger generation," Hulk said. "Tenants want their employees to stay and work and get done the things they need done.'' To that end, they insist on "a dynamic setting'' to help them attract and retain talent, he said. In the building's lobby, much of the mahoga- ny paneling installed when it opened in the '80s, was removed and the walls coated in grays and whites, to give the space a lighter, open feel, Hulk said. With similar improvements to the lobby/ common areas at 55 Capital and 175 Capital in Corporate Ridge, the landlord has so far spent about $1.4 million, Hulk said. Includ- ing the estimated $700,000 budgeted for the patio, game room/lounge, conference room and fitness center, the tab to make over 500 Enterprise Drive alone runs about $1.5 million. Since buying 500 Enterprise and mak- ing interior/exterior updates, KS Part- ners has lifted the building's occupan- cy from 82 percent then to 94 percent now. Nearly 2,000 people work in all three buildings, Hulk said. The improvements also have allowed the landlord to "start a slow increase in rents'' to recoup its investment, he said, despite a gen- erally soft market for rent hikes. Shortage impact In downtown Hartford, the updating of decor and electro-mechanical systems at Goodwin Square are complemented by exten- sive upgrades that a new owner made to reopen the companion Goodwin Hotel. In addition to the hotel's ground-floor bar-res- taurant, the Goodwin office building's retail ten- ants include a juice bar fronting Asylum Street, and Bin 228 Restaurant on the Pearl Street side. But not everything is peachy. Landlords/ tenants and their renovations contractors must contend with a red-hot construction market in which skilled hands, such as elec- tricians, are in short supply due to demand for new apartment construction/renovation. Also, rising prices and shortages for cer- tain building materials complicates office landlords' renovation schedules and budgets, observers say. Rising materials and labor prices have pushed commercial renovation costs from $25 a square foot two to three years ago, to $35 to $40 a square foot now. "Suppliers, general contractors and sub- contractors have been busier than they have been in the past,'' Hulk said. "You have to have a well-maintained [work] schedule to keep them booked.'' n from page 1 More inviting spaces, amenities a hit Counterclockwise, from top: Fiduciary Investment Advisors' Windsor workspaces at 100 Northfield Drive as re-envisioned by Bloomfield office-interior designer Infinity Group U.S. (Above) The open, inviting design of Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.'s technology "help desk'' and a fitness center are among employee amenities at its Hartford campus. (From left) Bright colors replaced much of the dark wood in the lobby at 500 Enterprise Drive in Rocky Hill. At center is a lounge area; far right, another view of the recast lobby. P H O T O S | C O N T R I B U T E D P H O T O S | C O N T R I B U T E D

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