2021 Power 25 Real Estate: Benjamin Schlossberg hartfordbusiness.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hartfordbusiness.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, Connecticut’s largest mutual bank is pursuing a commercial loan incursion into Hartford and the surrounding region.
While it’s the third largest Connecticut-based lender by deposits, Middletown’s Liberty Bank has not historically been a big player in the Hartford market.
In fact, it currently doesn’t have a branch in the Capital City, but it’s starting to plant its flag. The bank just opened two new loan offices in Hartford, including one in the heart of downtown, at 100 Pearl St.
Indeed, Liberty has written a greater portion of loans outside of Connecticut than is typical for banks of its size, thanks in part to a strong niche in timeshare vacation property financing.
Downtown Hartford’s major office buildings remain relatively deserted compared to pre-pandemic times, which creates potential problems for building owners.
“It makes it harder to lease additional space because it looks like a ghost town,” said Gary B. O’Connor, a commercial real estate attorney at Pullman & Comley. “[Owners] want the tenants to come back.”
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Gary B. O’Connor
Hartford’s largest office landlord, Shelbourne Global Solutions, certainly wants its tenants to start beckoning workers back to the workplace as soon as possible, said Benjamin Schlossberg, managing member of the New York-based realty company.
“We need to keep our buildings full, occupied and vibrant and it’s hard to do if people aren’t at work,” Schlossberg said. “For us it’s a real urgency.”
At State House Square, one of downtown Hartford’s major Class A office properties, David Jakubowski keeps a close eye on parking garage traffic reports, eager to see concrete signs of greater employee activity as COVID-19 vaccination rates rise.
However, Jakubowski, who manages the three-building property on behalf of its owners, has observed only a slight increase over the past few months. Inside, there’s still just a sliver of normal employee activity levels.
“We were hoping at this point we might have 25% of the normal population back to work,” Jakubowski said. “I see a few more people I haven’t seen in the last year, maybe one or two days a week.”
2021 Power 50: 12 Shana & Benjamin Schlossberg hartfordbusiness.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hartfordbusiness.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.