Major downtown Hartford employers expect broad-based return to offices in next six weeks [Hartford Courant]

Thousands of office workers will be returning to downtown Hartford in the next six weeks — many, for at least part of the work week — as three major corporate employers prepare a broad-based reopening of their offices in the city.

The decisions come as the wave of the coronavirus omicron variant and resulting infections appear to be subsiding in Connecticut and across the country.

Each of the three companies — Travelers Cos., Aetna Inc., and The Hartford Financial Services Group, all with a major presence in and around downtown — had delayed a return of workers at least twice.

Travelers now has set March 14, while Aetna expects that move to be a day later, on March 15. The Hartford has targeted April 4.

A return is good news for downtown businesses and shops that depend on workers and corporate functions for a major chunk of their business. The reopening of offices also will add street-level vibrancy that has been sorely lacking throughout the pandemic.

“We’re excited to see it, and the whole world is hoping that this time it sticks,” said David Griggs, president and chief executive of the MetroHartford Alliance, the regional chamber of commerce.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said the city is thrilled to have the employees of some of Hartford’s biggest companies return to their offices, “and we look forward to an active spring and summer as activity of all kinds comes back to the capital city.”

“Most of our major employers have been eager to bring their employees back for quite some time. And because of the series of variants that hit us, there were some delays and false starts, but I think, in general, there’s an overwhelming sense that it’s time to recover a great deal of normality.”

The reopening comes as the city seeks to jumpstart revitalization dealt a serious setback in the pandemic. The city has partnered with the alliance in selecting the first recipients of a grant program seeking to fill vacant storefronts. The “Hart Lift” program draws on the city’s pandemic relief funds aimed at spurring economic recovery.

Many of first grants were for restaurants.

“To the restaurateurs that are in the process of investing in our downtown core, it’s the promise of their investment,” Griggs said. “It means everything to them.”

The alliance said it would be working with large employers to again make them familiar the dining and entertainment options.

“So, we will we be working with them to do everything we can to make these new restaurants known to not only the leadership but to the thousands of people who work for them that might not have been downtown in two years,” Griggs said.

Griggs also praised the downtown businesses that have slogged through two very tough years.

The reopening of offices is tempered somewhat by how the pandemic has changed the workplace from primarily five days a week in the office to work weeks spent partly in the office and partly at home.

Hartford-based health insurer Aetna, owned by pharmacy giant CVS Health Corp., employs about 5,000 in Connecticut, the majority of them in Hartford, and said most of its employees would work on a partly remote schedule.

“Most corporate employees will spend two to three days a week at one of our office locations and work virtually on the other days as part of our new hybrid work format,” a CVS spokeswoman said in a statement.

At The Hartford, which employs thousands at its headquarters campus in Hartford’s Asylum Hill, senior leaders will report to office March 21.

The property-casualty insurer has said it would expand the hybrid working arrangement that was in place before the pandemic. Employees at The Hartford who worked remotely before the pandemic will continue that arrangement. Those who worked in the office full-time will move to a hybrid model, splitting time between home and office.

“Employee health and safety continues to guide our decisions as we work through this dynamic situation,” The Hartford said in a statement Friday. “As we have said all along, we will continue to make decisions and take action based on guidance from public-health experts.”

Travelers, which employs 7,000 in and around downtown Hartford, said some employees already have come into the office on a voluntary basis. But when a more broad-based return begins next month, there will be the option of a hybrid work arrangement.

“We’ll also be continuing to take into account the guidance from federal and state health officials to ensure the safety of our employees,” a Travelers spokeswoman said in a statement.

The changes in the workplace in the aftermath of the pandemic also continue to raise questions about how much office space will be needed in the future in an increasing hybrid workplace.

Griggs said residential development is more than likely to play an increasingly bigger role in downtowns like Hartford that were once largely the domain of offices.

Hartford has added 2,000 apartments in and around the downtown area in the last decade, many in the conversion of old office buildings

But still more residential units are needed, Griggs said, to offset fewer employees being in the office a full work week.

“The shrinking office footprint continues all around America,” Griggs said.

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.

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