On Wednesday, December 14, 2011, Forstone Capital, LLC was the proud recipient of the Economic Development Regional Impact Award from the Bridgeport Regional Business Council. Forstone Capital was recognized for its outstanding performance in Economic Development, one of the five priorities designated by the Business Council. The award was accepted on behalf of Forstone Capital by Brandon Hall and Brett Wilderman, Principals.

Brandon Hall and Brett Wilderman accepting the 2011 Economic Development Regional Impact Award.

Brandon Hall and Brett Wilderman with other recipients of 2011 Regional Impact Awards including Education, Healthcare, Sustainability and Small Business.
Photos: Roger Stall Photography

Building and Land Technology is continuing with its goal to make its Harbor Point project in Stamford a multi-use community, announcing the arrival of Le Pain Quotidien, a Belgian bakery-cafe, and Harlan Social, a gastropub.

Both are scheduled to open in May in the Yale & Towne neighborhood, with Le Pain Quotidien located at 711 Canal St., and Harlan Social at The Lockworks, 121 Towne St.

The arrival of the restaurants enhances the 80-acre project's "live, work and play" lifestyle, said Carl Kuehner III, chief executive officer of Norwalk-based Building and Land Technology.

"With its neighborhood focus, creativity and uncompromising standards of quality, Le Pain Quotidien is the perfect addition to Harbor Point," Kuehner said in prepared comments. "Harlan Social adds yet another exciting dimension to Harbor Point's concept of cosmopolitan living."

Stephen Lewandowski, executive chef of the Tribeca Grill in New York City and operator of Harlan Social, has a wide breadth of international experience and culinary knowledge that will make the restaurant a community destination, according to Kuehner.

"In a relaxed and inviting atmosphere, Harlan Social will be a lively gathering place for people to socialize and enjoy good food and drink that is intriguing but not intimidating," Lewandowski said in prepared comments.

Guests can view the open kitchen and "action station," and there will be a full-service outdoor dining area. The restaurant will also offer cooking demonstrations.

Founded in Belgium, Le Pain Quotidien will offer freshly baked organic bread, organic beverages, European-style pastries, Belgian waffles, salads and tartines and quiches. Le Pain Quotidien has restaurants in Greenwich, New Canaan and Rye, N.Y., and had been looking at downtown Stamford, said Lauren Goldblatt, director of real estate.

"When we were introduced to Harbor Point, we were very impressed. We saw a synergy between the shoppers at Fairway and our customers," she said, adding that she liked the businesses that already have arrived.

They include Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Design within Reach, Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy, First Niagara Bank exhale Spa, Go Green Dry Cleaners, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Subway and Robeks Premium Fruit Smoothies, as well as Fairway.

The bakery-cafe will be one of several businesses at the century-old building that once housed the Yale Lock factory.

With about 2,800 square feet and upwards of 40 employees, Le Pain Quotidien is strategically located to serve residents of The LockWorks and The Lofts at Yale & Towne and nearby businesses.

That's the premise of a mixed-use development with restaurants, shops, offices and other businesses, augmented by open space, said Anita Kramer, vice president of the Urban Land Institute's Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate.

"You have a place to relax, stroll and do a little shopping," she said. "From a developer's side, they are providing a place for the residents, and it creates more of a destination. The arrival of Le Pain Quotidien is an indication that there is a solid market there."

Harbor Point could be considered a more expansive and inclusive version of Blue Back Square in West Hartford, said Nicole Griffin, executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association.

"The point is to have a self-contained community with everything a resident may want. It's nice to go down the street and have a meal and a drink," she said. "Each component is super important."

Mayor Bill Finch introduces Michael Marcinek, of Fletcher-Thompson, Inc. in the lobby of the Mechanics and Farmers Bank building, in Bridgeport, Conn. Dec. 12th, 2011. Fletcher-Thompson, a major architecture, engineering and interior design firm, announced that they will be relocating back to downtown Bridgeport, and will occupy the former bank building, that they will also be renovating. The renovation is expected to take 18 months.

Photo: Ned Gerard / CT

An engineering and design firm that left the city in 2002 will be moving back. After leaving for Shelton in 2002, Fletcher-Thompson Inc., which was founded in Bridgeport in 1910, is planning its move back to the city and will design and oversee the construction of the Mechanics and Farmers Bank on Main Street with the intent of leasing space there in January 2014. "When we left it was tough for Bridgeport, but looking back we had to make tough decisions," said Mike Marcinek, managing partner at the architectural, engineering and interior design firm. "There have been many strong ties with the city. We looked back, and we said maybe we made a mistake leaving."

A decade ago, Fletcher-Thompson's 135-person workforce was spread out in three buildings in Bridgeport. After failing to locate 35,000 square feet of contiguous office space and suitable parking in the city, the company moved to developer Bob Scinto's Enterprise Corporate Park.

The company occupies 30,000 square feet there. But with additional offices opened in New Jersey, Florida and other states in the last decade, the space is now too large for the 60 employees who work there.

Scinto said he was surprised but not upset to learn the company plans to move back to Bridgeport.

"That's so terrific," he said. "They've been a great tenant. I've used them on a couple of projects. I'm losing a tenant, but I'm so glad Bridgeport is getting them."

He said he is not worried about filling the space once Fletcher-Thompson leaves.

"We have people waiting for space here," said Scinto. Marcinek said the company could not pass up the opportunity to move into the historic M&F bank. He said the question became, "Do we stay where we are in suburbia or do we look to being part of the renaissance of downtown Bridgeport?"

He said architects like to be in urban settings.

Although the company is excited to return to the city, the move could take up to two years because of the tremendous amount of work still required to renovate the bank property, which was vacant for decades, Marcinek said.

When it does happen, Mayor Bill Finch said it will be great news for the city.

"It was symbolic of troubled times when Fletcher-Thompson left the city for a different venue," he said, "and it is symbolic of better times to come that they have decided to return to the city and be a participant in the revitalization of downtown Bridgeport."

The company plans to lease the entire bank space, at 930 Main St., and ground floor space in the adjoining building, at 114 State St. Plans for the structures also include roughly 30 market-rate apartments in the upper floors.

Maintaining the property's historic integrity -- detailed stonework will have to be replaced to its original state, for example --will require a lengthy renovation process, said Brett Wilderman, principal at Forstone Capital, which was chosen by the city to purchase and redevelop the property in 2009.

"As a major stakeholder in the downtown, to have a company like Fletcher-Thompson move into downtown is a great thing," he said. "It allows us to move forward with the redevelopment and will put more feet on the street to use the retail operations."

In 2004, Brett Wilderman and Brandon Hall began the planning process for a real-estate company that would purchase commercial properties in and around Bridgeport, Connecticut. The idea was to bring in revenue by either leasing up the properties or improving their operating expenses. When the firm went live in 2007 as Forstone Capital, the US real-estate market was at its frenzied peak, and the firm purchased a handful of residential and commercial properties. "It was an interesting time to start a real estate company," Wilderman says with a laugh. "We quickly faced some pretty serious challenges."

When the real-estate bubble burst in 2008, the opportunity to increase rents- essential to Forstone's business model-disappeared. The firm had little choice but to shift its focus wholly toward cutting back on operating expenses. With utilities making up a large percentage of these costs, Forstone Capital quickly became acquainted with the world of sustainable building and design. "Many of the properties we owned were over 50 years old," Wilderman says. "The mechanical systems had been upgraded over the years but were often still quite old."

The firm discovered that a number of programs offered grants for buildings requiring energy-efficient improvements, and it began aggressively pursuing those subsidies. At its property at 100 Fairfield Avenue, Forstone Capital was able to cut down on energy costs through a variety of measures. The controls on approximately 80 heat pumps were upgraded to direct digital controls, and Web based energy-management systems were installed on the boiler system, cooling tower, and makeup air units, allowing for more efficient oversight of energy use throughout the building. "It gives a brain to the system, heating and cooling the building only when it needs it," Wilderman says. Ultimately, the building has cut 487,000 kilowatt-hours annually and saved $100,000.

Today, Forstone Capital-which now owns around 600,000 square feet of space in Bridgeport, much of it downtown office space is not only keeping an eye out for ways to improve efficiency; it's also collaborating with third-party energy-efficiency experts as part of its acquisition process. The firm outsources its HVAC maintenance to a company that possesses an in-house sustainability-evaluation team that runs analytics on different scenarios. "That awareness has really given us a leg up, both in terms of existing properties and properties we're evaluating for purchase," Wilderman says. "We've become much better at eyeing those opportunities."

What, then, are the metrics for whether a potential property is viable from the point of view of improving operating expenses? "We always look at payback, and whether the up front costs can be justified through savings and bolstered by subsidies," Wilderman says. "If we're spending $100,000 to upgrade, we want to have a firm estimate on how quickly we'll get repaid on that in reduced energy costs. Two years or less is phenomenal. Three is okay. Four or more, it becomes less attractive." Though it still looks at occasional residential properties, Forstone Capital's niche is primarily commercial. "People are still pessimistic about the recovery of the commercial market, so there's less competition which we view as an opportunity," Wilderman says. "Since 2008, almost everyone's been in the position of trying to weather this economic tsunami. Before that, the idea of energy efficiency was about a tenth of our consideration with our properties. Now it's one of the biggest. It's completely shifted the paradigm."

On Old Kings Highway: Headquarters goes from virtual to brick and mortar

An environmental testing company has chosen Darien for its new headquarters, settling into a space at 19 Old Kings Highway South.

TestAmerica, a privately owned business that has 35 laboratories and 40 service centers, opened its main office in late September in a 4,600-square-foot space in a building owned by Forstone Capital LLC.

The Darien site was chosen for its proximity to senior leadership and access to transportation, according to a company statement, which noted that CEO James Hyman lives in Stamford, and Chief Financial Officer Benjamin Erwin lives in Darien.

Stamford resident Constance Hubbard has been hired as vice president of human resources.
Jeffrey Gage, managing principal of the Norwalk office of CresaPartners, which represented TestAmerica in its site search, said it has been operating with a virtual headquarters.

"They felt they needed a home base. The idea is having a beachhead where they can recruit from," said Gage, who worked with Rich Opalenik of the CresaPartners Norwalk office. "We're managing a portfolio of $1.2 million square feet for them."

Gage said the space will eventually house 15 to 20 employees.

The 45,513-square-foot, three-story building, purchased by Forstone Capital eight months ago, is a block from the Darien train station and near Darien's downtown, an important location as Forstone fills the property, said George Walker, executive vice president of the Stamford office of Jones Lang LaSalle, which represents Forstone.

Forstone is remodeling the building and improving the landscaping and parking lot, he said.
"Generally, the occupancy level is about 50 percent, but we've had a lot of interest from companies looking to take advantage of the downtown amenities and Metro-North. Our prospect velocity has been good," Walker said, commenting that Trammochem will soon move to 17 Old Kings Highway South in Darien, and JetBlue will then finish moving to its New York offices. "That gives us the opportunity reposition the building."

Carol Wilder Tamme, president of the Darien Chamber of Commerce, welcomed TestAmerica, noting that Old Kings Highway is a block from the busy Post Road.

"Expanding the `business buzz' from the Post Road into another block will be beneficial for restaurants and all other businesses that support people employed in our central business district," she said.

Commercial rentals in Fairfield County showed signs of life in the second quarter as vacancy rates appear to be stabilizing.

In the quarter, leasing activity increased by 71.1 percent, compared with first-quarter numbers, according to the Stamford office of Cushman and Wakefield. Class A leasing activity totaled 663,442 square feet -- almost double the 346,930 square feet leased last quarter and 12.5 percent higher than the same period of last year.

"Leasing activity is finally returning to the more normal levels of 2.7 million square feet per annum after hitting a low of only 900,000 square feet in 2009," said Jim Fagan, senior managing director and head of Cushman & Wakefield's Fairfield and Westchester County region. "We have clearly survived the worst part of the cycle and are in a continuing up-trend, although there will be some bumps along the way."

Class A office vacancy rates range from 29.6 percent in Stamford's non-central business district and 29.1 percent in Greater Danbury to 0.7 percent in Fairfield, where there are few Class A office complexes, according to the Cushman & Wakefield report.

Other Class A office vacancy levels are 20.4 percent in the Stamford central business district, 20 percent in Greenwich, 16.1 percent in Darien/New Canaan, 21.3 percent in Norwalk, 12 percent in Wilton/Weston, 16 percent in Westport/Southport, 13.2 percent in Bridgeport, 14.6 percent in Shelton/Stratford and 17.1 percent in Trumbull.

Average rental rates for Class A space range from $55.53 in Greenwich and $44.17 in Stamford's central business district to $19.99 in Bridgeport.

Major lease deals in the quarter included Bridgewater Associates' expansion at 20 Westport Road in Wilton, moving into 227,998 formerly occupied by Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy. Dreyfus relocated to new space at Harbor Point in Stamford.

Other significant leases in the first half the year included AQR Capital renewal of 31,000 square feet and expansion of 27,000 square feet at 2 Greenwich Plaza in Greenwich; Telekurs' renewal of 32,600 square feet at 3 Riverbend Center in Stamford; a new lease by Wells Fargo Advisors for 25,800 square feet at 450 Post Road East in Westport; Columbus Circle Investors' expansion of 7,450 square feet at 1 Station Place in Stamford to 24,000 square feet; a new lease by Freeport Commodities, a spin-off of Sempra, for 23,000 square feet at 5 Greenwich Office Park in Greenwich; Sikorsky sublease of 168,000 square feet at 1 Far Mill Crossing in Shelton; News America renewal of 52,000 square feet at 20 Westport Road, Wilton; Nielsen Co., a new lease for 35,000 square feet on Route 8 in Shelton.

Commercial agents are waiting to see what UBS decides regarding its future in Stamford, possibly impacting the office rental marketing throughout the area.

"That will set a tone for central Fairfield County," said John Goodkind, managing principal at Newmark Knight Frank. "Despite rumors surrounding UBS's plans to pull out of Stamford and relocate back to New York City, financial service firms recognize the importance of maintaining a presence in Fairfield County. In fact, the services industry accounted for nearly 60 percent of the leasing volume (total square footage), including renewals and new deals, in Fairfield County during the second quarter of 2011, and nearly one-third of all deals brokered during this period. These firms are taking advantage of the competitive rates in the market to expand and locate into Class A office space."

His firm's statistics showed the overall availability rate in the county decreased from 26 percent in the last quarter and 26.6 percent reported a year ago to 24.7 percent in the second quarter of 2011.

Tenants and prospective tenants are taking advantage of the vacancy rates to drive deals with landlords, while some are taking less space because they have fewer employees than four years ago, Fagan said, whose firm is marketing The Financial Centre, a 561,000-square-foot vacant office building owned by Lehman Brothers Holdings at 695 E. Main St., in Stamford.

Newmark Knight Frank has been the leasing agent for The Financial Centre, but has been unsuccessful in finding a major tenant.

"That building needs to find an owner. They need to invest money in it. It's a great piece of real estate," Goodkind said. "We're hoping there's a ripple effect from New York City."

Some investors are taking advantage of difficulties faced by some landlords to acquire office properties.

Among deals done in the quarter were the sale of 1 Dock St. (90,000 square feet) in Stamford to Dock Street Holdings LLC for $15.8 million; 889 Bridgeport Ave., (55,000 square feet) in Shelton to Rugby Realty for $2.8 million; 19 Old Kings Highway South (41,000 square feet) in Darien to Forstone Capital for $7.8 million; and 450 Post Road East (35,292 square feet) in Westport to Baywater Properties for $5.4 million.

"Capital is rolling back into the market," Fagan said. "After a period of virtually no sales, owners are finding that market pricing is yielding favorable results, although still well off the price levels achieved in 2007."

A solid rebound in the market, however, will not occur until companies get some reassurance that uncertainty created by the federal health plan, the federal Dodd-Frank legislation regulating financial services and the nation's debt ceiling is resolved, said Robert Caruso, senior managing director of the Stamford office of CB Richard Ellis.

When a surge of hiring occurs, companies will seek more space and vacancy rates will decline, he said, but there are signs of improvement.

"We're not seeing any more giving back of space, which is good. We're starting to see expansion," Caruso said. "People aren't in the reduction mode anymore."

Building and Land Technology is making strides in advancing its Harbor Point project in the south end of Stamford, Caruso said, but there won't be a surge in retail tenants until there are more occupants in the office and residential spaces under construction.

Aside from Harbor Point, there has been little new construction in the region, and the market should slowly absorb much of the direct available space, said Cory Gubner, president and chief executive officer of RHYS, a commercial real estate firm in Stamford.

"Small quarterly improvements in the office market will eventually add up to a significant turnaround, so long as unemployment begins to decline," he said.

The long-awaited bump in hiring may be occurring, based on information supplied by the Stamford office of Jones Lang LaSalle, showing that office-using sectors increased employment in the county by 1.2 percent since June 2010.

Total payrolls grew by more than 1,200 jobs during the first six months of 2011, and office-using jobs accounted for more than three-quarters of additional payrolls, growing by nearly 1,000 jobs. "It appears that demand-side fundamentals are starting to improve," said the firm in its /Pulse/ report for the second quarter. The trends are indicative of large, well-established companies expanding and smaller companies beginning to stabilize, the report said.

$7.8 million. 19 Old Kings Highway South (between Corbin Drive and Center Street) Darien, CT. A private investment group in New Canaan, Conn., has bought this 42,376-square-foot office building with two stories and an 8,489-square-foot third-story setback. The property has 142 parking spaces and is in the downtown area within walking distance of the Metro North train station.

Buyer: Forstone Capital
Seller: Hall Investments

Brokers: Harden L. Crawford IV and Matthew F. Keefe, HK Group

Five years ago, Bridgeport's downtown offered little but fast-food chain eateries, marginal shops and small businesses scattered among empty, graffiti-defaced storefronts. People visited with a purpose -- their job, jury duty at the Fairfield County Superior Courthouse, shopping for clothes at Jimmy's Army and Navy Store -- then quickly departed.

Since then, several of the vacant, deteriorated buildings began to gleam again, hundreds of residential units were created and new restaurants began to give people a reason to visit and, most importantly, stick around downtown. The rocky economic climate has slowed that progress significantly over the last two years. Funding sources are scarce, leaving developers to scramble to get projects -- some announced with fanfare years ago -- off the boards and into the ground.

Compounding the problem is the reluctance by commercial and retail enterprises to invest in a new venture. Chosen in 2005 to transform several blighted blocks owned by the city, developer Eric Anderson, of Urban Green Builders, has witnessed the ups and downs of downtown revitalization first-hand. With Anderson's renovation of the Citytrust building at 955 Main St., the Arcade shopping mall on the next block and the 144 Golden Hill St. building, more than 200 units of housing have been added to the downtown inventory. Those projects are now 95 percent occupied, he said.

Kristal Francis, who moved into the Citytrust building in September 2008 as she awaited renovations to be complete on the former Arcade Hotel, said her decision to live downtown was easy. "I went one day after work to see the (Arcade) building and knew right away that this was the next move I was going to make. I wanted to be a part of change, an urban pioneer," she said. "Once the Arcade was open and ready, I'll admit I was a little sad to move out of the Citytrust building," Francis said, "but once I saw that atrium, I started to smile again. It was nice to see that the apartments are not cookie-cutter and bland."

Despite his success providing affordable, attractive housing units downtown, Anderson has found it difficult to fill retail spaces in the three buildings. "The retail market has been very tough," he said, "but everyone else has been going toward lots of vacancies and we've been slowly getting people in." So far, the Main Street Pharmacy, a Citibank branch, clothing store GumDrop Swap and eateries Amici Miei and Fraiche Burger are the only retail tenants in Anderson's three buildings. A photography studio, an ice cream shop and a cupcake store are scheduled to open soon. GumDrop Swap owner Gabby Fludd said when she saw the Arcade, "I fell in love with it and I said this is where I want to be." At GumDrop Swap customers drop off their children's clothing, collect points known as "gumdrops" for each item and use those to acquire clothing of a different size. To swap, customers must pay a low monthly fee.

Years ago, the Bridgeport resident was one of the first tenants of the Read's Artspace building. "It was my first home when I moved to Connecticut," Fludd said. "I know it's safe to live and work here." To get things moving again, Anderson is working with the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority for financing to fit out retail spaces in his buildings, including a planned grocery store at the Arcade. Also, because of the issues he has faced, Anderson has decided to delay plans to build a new tower building in the Downtown North redevelopment zone, consisting of the blocks bordered by Gold, Golden Hill, Main and Middle streets and half of the blocks on either side of Main Street between Golden Hill and Fairfield Avenue. Instead, he will focus on renovating two dangerously deteriorated structures on the site that now are surrounded by concrete jersey barriers to prevent pedestrians from getting too close. He recently applied to CHFA for funding and is waiting for the agency's response.

Developer Phil Kuchma knows about waiting. He has waited nearly two years to fill the gap created when the failing economy forced a major funding source to drop its backing for a mixed-use building he was building at Lafayette Circle and Fairfield Avenue. The half-finished structure has come to epitomize all the other stalled efforts to revitalize downtown. Kuchma said he expects his final funding source -- a loan from CHFA -- to be in place soon. Once that happens, construction work will move "full-speed ahead." He estimates residents could be moving in to the residential units by late fall. Kuchma said he also expects a dry clean business, liquor store and a unisex hair salon to occupy three of the seven retail spaces on the building's ground floor. They will join the restaurants already on lower Fairfield Avenue in Kuchma's Bijou Square, including Epernay Bistro, Las Vetas Lounge and Two Boots. Those eateries are doing well, he said, especially when events are held at the nearby Klein Memorial Auditorium and the Arena at Harbor Yard. "There is always additional business when there are events going on," he said. "It really changes the amount of people who come to the restaurant very noticeably." Kuchma said in recent years he has seen a lot of new faces downtown. "Most of the business that comes here is from the suburbs," he said. "Most of the time I see people I don't know. That's what I want to see." Kuchma said he also regularly gets calls from people looking for space to open a new dining spot downtown.

That's music to Brandon Hall's ears. Hall, a principal in Norwalk-based Forstone Capital, has contractors working on interior demolition of the water-damaged Mechanics & Farmers Bank building at 930 Main St. "We are excited," he said. "In the state it was in, you couldn't even walk potential tenants through the building." Hall said once completed, he envisions retail, commercial and residential tenants in the once-grand stone structure. Forstone has also seen progress in the buildings the business purchased in partnership with Spinnaker Real Estate, also of Norwalk.

The two companies purchased a nine-building portfolio from People's United Bank in late 2008. The building at 779 Main St. was renovated last year and now houses nonprofit Casey Family Services. The partners will also soon welcome Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit focused on nutrition, into a street level space at 189 Main St. The company is moving to Bridgeport from Westport.

Despite the signs of improvement downtown, though, plenty of work remains to be done. The stretch of Main Street through northern downtown is still flanked by blighted or boarded-up buildings -- like the Poli and Majestic Theaters the city has put up for sale -- and weedchoked parking lots.

Adam Wood, Mayor Bill Finch's chief of staff, said the city has started to clean up the blocks to the south of the Cardinal Shehan Center to make the area more "aesthetically pleasing" by demolishing the former convenience store building at 1290 Main St. several weeks ago. The lot will be used as a municipal parking lot until a development plan is approved for the area, said Donald Eversley, the city's economic and community development director. "We are reviewing the condition of the remaining structures on that block to determine their viability for improvement and development," he added. The city has also been assured by owners of the building that formerly housed the Azteca and Ocean Sea Grill restaurants, across the street from the shuttered theaters, that their site will not be inactive much longer as it is undergoing renovations. Wood said the city's redevelopment hopes have been slowed -- and, for years, nonexistent -- by the lack of funds for the expensive makeover of the many old buildings. But, he added, officials are confident that now that downtown revitalization has begun, nothing will stand in the way of continued progress.

Three months after purchasing the former Mechanics & Farmers Bank building on Main Street, Forstone Capital is preparing to market the property to tenants.

Forstone, a Norwalk-based real estate investment firm, was chosen by the city to redevelop the building at 930 Main St. and 114 State St. The company paid the city $500,000 for the property, the minimum bid requested for the site. After the bids were opened the spring, the city never publicly acknowledged that officials were negotiating a contract with Forstone and never publicly announced that the company had purchased the property. "They have 18 months from closing to commence development of their project, currently planned for a mix of commercial and restaurant uses," said Donald Eversley, the city's director of planning and economic development.

Eversley said the sale would serve to enhance downtown's revitalization. "It will take a long vacant building and return it to active use, generating economic activity and taxes for the city, creating jobs and supporting other development in the downtown area," he said.

Brandon Hall, a partner in Forstone, said the new owners have begun interior demolition work on the building, which he said has significant water damage. "Our immediate plans are to clean up the building. We are replacing the broken windows" this week, he said.

Once the work is done the company will begin to market the building. Hall said plans for the building could include housing, but he declined to elaborate. He said the company did not want to "overpromise on what can be done there. It's very difficult in this environment to have anything done." "We want to take the building and bring it back on line, bring it back to life," Hall added. Just over a month before closing on the M&F building, Forstone also purchased the four-story office building at 100 Fairfield Ave. for $2 million.

Their latest additions to the company's portfolio bring its total downtown holdings to more than 600,000 square feet of space. Last year, Forstone partnered with Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, operating together under the name of Main Street Ventures, to purchase 10 downtown properties on Main, State and Broad streets formerly owned by People's United Bank.

Forstone also purchased the three buildings on Lafayette Square and Fairfield Avenue last year, where Joseph's Steakhouse is located. It recently paved the lot next to the restaurant and are now charging $1 an hour or $5 for the day to park in the lot. Drivers pay a machine at the rear of the lot and leave their receipt on their windshield as proof of payment. Similar machines are used in surface lots in Stamford and Norwalk. "It's clearly stated and we tried to make the rates reasonable," Hall said of the new fees. The company has a contract with Midtown Towing for enforcement of the fee.

The $15.7MM complex, dubbed Lafayette Circle, will help play key role in the city’s revitalization.

Forstone Capital, LLC, in a joint venture with Maxwelle Real Estate Group of Aventura, FL, is proud to announce the purchase of 170,000 SF of commercial space in the heart of downtown Bridgeport, Connecticut. The 3 building complex is currently 95% occupied and located in an urban-infill growth area easily accessible from I-95, Route 8 and Metro North railroad. Included in the acquisition are approximately two acres of ready-to-be-developed land adjacent to the office complex.

The three acre, three building site includes:
> 7 Story Office Building 120,000 SF 94% occupied
> 4 Story Office Building 40,500 SF 97% occupied
> 3 Story Brick Building 9,500 SF 100% occupied
> Vacant Land Parcel 2 acres Future development site

The purchase falls in line with Forstone's investment strategy of buying properties with strong short-term cash flow coupled with value creation opportunities. Purchased in an off-market transaction through Fred Frasinelli of AMS Real Estate, Forstone was able to make the purchase at an attractive cap rate on existing income. The appeal of the property is underscored with its base of high-credit tenants and premier location within Bridgeport’s emerging commercial district. “In a time of wide spread financial turbulence, the completion of this transaction was a significant accomplishment for our company. We are thrilled to be playing an active role in the revitalization of downtown Bridgeport while expanding our portfolio,” explains Brandon Hall, principal of Forstone Capital, LLC.

Forstone Capital sees significant market opportunity in Bridgeport and is committed to participating in the downtown renaissance. As rents throughout the region continue to increase, many businesses are taking interest in Bridgeport to benefit from its convenient transportation infrastructure, developing urban amenities and affordability. To capitalize on this growth trend, several notable private investment firms have recently taken positions in and around Bridgeport’s commercial core with major development plans over the next several years.

In keeping with Forstone’s value-creation philosophy, the company plans to make several improvements to increase the properties’ efficiency and marketability. Forstone’s expertise in leasing and property management will help to position Lafayette Circle as one of Bridgeport’s premier commercial complexes. In addition to upgrading the existing buildings, a number of strategic opportunities are being explored for the adjacent development sites. Lafayette Circle marks the second acquisition by Forstone in Bridgeport; a 36- unit multifamily apartment complex was also purchase late last year.

Brandon P. Hall and Brett M. Wilderman launched Forstone Capital in April 2007 having previously worked for institutional real estate firms.