New lease highlights rebound of former Charter Communications HQ building in Stamford

Oct. 16—STAMFORD — Another company will take space in the downtown office building at 400 Atlantic St., the latest sign of the rebound in the past few years of the former home of Spectrum-services provider Charter Communications.

Keter Environmental Services signed a lease for 38,696 square feet at 400 Atlantic in the third quarter of this year, according to a new report from commercial real estate firm CBRE. Keter follows several other companies, including marketing-and-talent representation firm Octagon, reinsurer Gen Re and pharmaceutical firm Cara Therapeutics, that have all signed leases in the approximately 500,000-square-foot tower in the past year and a half.

Messages left for Keter asking why it signed the lease were not returned.

Keter's website indicates it has offices in the High Ridge Park office complex, next to the Merritt Parkway and about five miles north of 400 Atlantic. The company also has offices in Indianapolis and Phoenix.

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The website describes Keter, which was founded in 2011, as a "data-driven, end-to-end recycling and waste managed services company focused on providing first-class sustainable programs on a national footprint."

Extensive renovations at the 15-story 400 Atlantic, which George Comfort & Sons acquired for $72 million in 2022 from Charter, have played a key role in attracting tenants. Charter, which ranks No. 76 on this year's Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations, had been headquartered at 400 Atlantic for nearly a decade before opening in 2021 a custom-built, two-building headquarters a few blocks away, at 400 Washington Blvd.

In the past few years, George Comfort & Sons has overseen a similar turnaround in the office complex that it owns a couple of blocks away, at 677-707 Washington Blvd. When it acquired that property about six years ago, it stood as the city's largest vacant office property, following banking giant UBS' relocation of its local offices across the street, to 600 Washington Blvd. In the pavilion at 707 Washington, UBS had once operated one of the world's largest trading floors.

Since then, renovations have helped recruit a number of companies to 677-707 Washington. In November 2022, tobacco producer Philip Morris International opened its new headquarters, after relocating from Manhattan. In 2023, sports-entertainment company WWE opened its new headquarters, after maintaining offices for more than 30 years on Stamford's east side.

George Comfort & Sons declined to comment for this article.

Among other leasing transactions in downtown Stamford in the third quarter of 2024, career-services company Indeed renewed for one more year the approximately 150,000-square-foot-lease of its co-headquarters at 177 Broad St. The company still plans to open in late 2025 its new co-headquarters, a couple of blocks away, at 200 Elm St.

The co-headquarters relocation shows that Indeed intends to maintain a long-term presence in Stamford, despite laying off an undisclosed number of local employees as part of approximately 1,000 job cuts company-wide that were announced in May.

Also at 200 Elm St., alcoholic-beverages producer Diageo renewed the nearly 58,000-square-foot lease for its regional hub, according to CBRE.

In the third quarter, the availability rate ran at about 24 percent in Stamford's central business district and around 35 percent in the sections of Stamford outside the central business district, according to CBRE. During the same period, Fairfield County's availability rate ran at nearly 26 percent.

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