Air, Water, Light, Attract Flourishing Businesses To Glen Road Facilities

By John Voket

“Just add fresh air, water and light and watch your business grow…”

It may sound like some kind of slick marketing line, but for many of the businesses large and small that have taken up residence in either of two Glen Road industrial redevelopments, it sums things up with remarkable accuracy.

The quotable catchphrase was the brainchild of Jack Braverman, a former retail executive who now serves as the exclusive broker for both 27 and 75 Glen Road. Both of these unique former rubber products factories now house local, regional, national, and international enterprises.

Tenants range from single professionals occupying just a few hundred square feet, to larger scale human resources, computer, and publishing businesses, photography and videography studios, a commercial financing group, a custom clothier and, as of this week, a newly relocated world headquarters for a technology company that manufactures scientific measuring components, some occupying entire floors.

This latest development marks the second out-of-state relocation to the facilities by a major corporate player in its respective market. Last year, according to Mr Braverman, the Municipal Emergency Services Corporation — the largest supplier of fire equipment in the United States — relocated its headquarters from Texas.

Much like the newest corporate tenant, SciTec, Inc, the Texas emergency equipment supplier was attracted first by the local lifestyle, the availability of a highly educated local population, proximity to I-84, as well as the Class A Office renovation that has taken place at the Rocky Glen Mill Office Campus.

“I think when they saw the building and the waterfall, they wanted to know where to sign,” Mr Braverman said. “Although we were initially contacted as a prospective location a few months ago, the decision to relocate and their subsequent move to Rocky Glen all transpired between June 25 and July 9.”

Another company, OIS Systems, has expanded to more than four times its original size from 1,800 to 7,600 square feet of space and just inked a five-year lease in the complex.

This growth spurt seems to be more the rule than the exception for his tenants, Mr Braverman said.

“Almost half of the existing tenants [42 percent] of the companies located at The Rocky Glen Office Park have expanded their offices from 35 percent to 400 percent in the last several years, adding new employees and growing their sales,” he said.

Over the last several years, The Braverman Group LLC has managed, leased, and sold several million square feet of space in New York and Connecticut. During that time it became clear that certain buildings not only seemed to retain their tenants, they even grew them organically from within.

These buildings tend to be classic industrial structures that Mr Braverman said are just lying unoccupied throughout large and medium cities and towns throughout the region. The 100,000-square-foot Rocky Glen Mill Office Campus at 27-75 Glen Road is the quintessential example of these popular sources for commercial redevelopment.

The recycled factory buildings boast a combination of cooling summer and insulating winter masonry construction, geothermal water heating, a backup well that holds 2,000 gallons of potable water, and an on-site waste water treatment facility.

“We have our air conditioning and heat pumps inside so they don’t bake in the summer and freeze in the winter,” Mr Braverman said. “The walls have air pocket channels to enhance the natural insulating material, and we offer intelligent supplemental heating and cooling.

“That means we simply depend on the intelligence of our tenants to open or close windows, and control their own thermostats,” he added.

From a historical perspective, the building at 75 Glen Road was formerly home to the largest water wheel in North America. And besides the ambiance afforded to tenants by virtue of being tucked into a bend in the Pootatuck River, wrapped in the soothing shade of the Rocky Glen State Park, there is plenty of water and a waterfall that still helps provide electrical power to the facilities via an in-house generating plant.

All that fresh air, water, and natural light may be the catalyst for commercial growth along Glen Road.

“Recently, the Financial Times reported on a study by the Gensler Corporation called ‘These Four Walls.’ It corroborates the findings of several other independent researchers including Franklin Becker, director of Cornell University’s International Studies Workplace Program and the Heschong Mahone Group of California,” Mr Braverman said.

“According to the Financial Times study, paying careful attention to the employee’s personal office space including the views that they look out on, their access to fresh air, daylight, their own control of office climate, and a quiet environment dramatically improved both creativity and productivity and paid off handsomely right at the bottom line,” he said. “In an ideal world, 35 percent of professionals would prefer an office with a water view, 26 percent countryside, and 10 percent mountains, and we have all that right here.”

Mr Braverman concluded that the views of natural and constructed waterfalls, the winding river, and 100-foot-tall evergreens growing over granite cliffs probably is the main contributor to why tenants and employees fall in love with these buildings and rarely leave. The exponential growth of many of the tenants bottom lines is simply a highly attractive fringe benefit to leasing space at the Rocky Glen Mill Office Campus.

For more information call 203-222-8100.