885 KSF UnitedHealthcare Center in Hartford Sells for $99M

By Nicholas Ziegler, News Editor

CityPlace L.L.C. has closed on the sale of UnitedHealthcare Center in Downtown Hartford, Conn., for $99 million. Services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., which brokered the transaction, calls the property “the tallest building in Connecticut and the only office tower in Hartford greater than 30 floors.”

“The sale of UnitedHealthcare Center marks the largest in Hartford in more than two years,” Michael Smith, managing director with JLL, said. “The high-quality investment-grade tenants, including anchor tenant UnitedHealth Group, along with its excellent location, high quality construction and consistently high historical occupancy made this property extremely compelling.”

UnitedHealthcare Center is formerly known as CityPlace I and is located at the corner of Asylum and Trumbull Streets. Completed in 1983, it was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, built by Urban Investment and Development and has undergone significant renovations during the past five years.

At the end of 2011, the Hartford County unemployment rate remained below the national average, sitting at 8.2 percent, according to research by services firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. “Despite being the 10th most productive city in the U.S.,” the report noted, “the Hartford region still struggles to add jobs and reduce the unemployment rate.” Bringing additional problems is the fact that Europe is the state’s largest export market — in 2010, 50 percent of all exports went across the Atlantic. What happens in Europe, then, will have a significant impact on the area’s local economies.