A pair of vacant Connecticut office buildings have been acquired for redevelopment as multifamily housing.
A joint venture of the developers Saber-Hightower LLC and Granoff Real Estate closed on the acquisition of 101 and 201 Merritt 7, in the Merritt 7 office park in the New York City suburb of Norwalk, Connecticut.
The two eight-story buildings encompass 511,000 square feet with more than 1,300 parking spaces. The properties will be converted into 286 loft-style rental apartments, with the first units expected to be available in late 2027; 26 units will be designated affordable under Norwalk’s inclusionary requirements. The properties will receive a resort-style amenity area featuring a swimming pool with cabanas, dog runs, a putting green, and a bocce court.
The conversion project is budgeted at $120 million; the acquisition price was not publicly disclosed.
“While some developers may have looked at these buildings as a teardown-and-rebuild opportunity, we saw the value in reusing what was there,” said Greg Belew, co-founder of Saber-Hightower. “With 11-foot ceilings, wall-to-wall windows, and simple floor plates, it was apparent to us that we had great bones to work with. The best approach to adaptive reuse is to keep it simple. We are making no structural modifications to either building, and that lets us control costs and mitigate risk.”
Last January, the other four buildings within the Merritt 7 office park were sold for $58.5 million. That portion of the office park includes the headquarters for companies including of Xerox, Terex, Emcor, Hearst Connecticut Media Group, Common Fund, Datto/Kaseya, MBI, and LBB Specialties.
Photo: 101 Merritt 7, via LoopNet
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