Lincoln Financial Renews Lease At Hartford’s Metro Center

Sept. 30--Lincoln Financial Corp. -- a mainstay employer in downtown since the late 1990s -- has extended its lease at Metro Center another decade.

Lincoln Financial's current lease for eight floors in the 12-story tower on Church Street expires in July 2018. The lease encompasses all of Lincoln's existing space of about 190,000 square feet, making it one of the largest office leases downtown in recent years.

"The new lease will take us into 2028, which will mark 30 years in downtown Hartford for Lincoln," said Jay Russo, a Lincoln spokesman in Hartford. "After carefully evaluating our options, we feel the Metro Center best serves the needs of Lincoln and our Hartford employees."

Russo said the insurer, which has about 700 full-time employees downtown, conducted a search through the entire Hartford area but found Metro Center's downtown location and amenities, including an attached parking garage, to be the best choice.

Metro Center, owned by The Fremont Group, based in West Hartford, is fully leased. The 296,000-square-foot tower also is leased by accounting firm CohnReznick and the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.

"This is great news for the central business district," Jonathan Keller, president of The Fremont Group, said in confirming the lease Thursday. "We are excited to have Lincoln as anchor tenant for Metro Center."

Bob Kelly, executive director at commerical real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, said the lease represents a major milestone for the local office market this year.

"It will be one of the largest, if not the largest," said Kelly, who was involved in the deal. "I can't think of a lease this large downtown or in Hartford County."

Lincoln Financial's Hartford office includes employees who work in individual life insurance, annuities, group protection, distribution, administrative services and information technology, customer service, legal services and compliance.

Lincoln declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.

Lincoln moved into downtown Hartford in 1998 after acquiring a life insurance business from Cigna Corp., and moving it from Bloomfield into the Metro Center tower.

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