Choyce Peterson handles 3,875 s/f lease renewal for Carta, McAlister & Moore

Darien, CT Choyce Peterson, Inc. has completed the lease renewal negotiations for Carta, McAlister & Moore, LLC for its 3,875 s/f office space at 1120 Boston Post Rd. Choyce Peterson vice president Adam Cognetta and principal John Hannigan represented Carta, McAlister & Moore.

Mark Carta, managing partner of Carta, McAlister & Moore, had seen Choyce Peterson’s electronic and hard copy mailings and recognized the company’s reputation for professional real estate brokerage services for tenants. He approached Cognetta and Hannigan when his firm’s lease was set to expire and the building at 1120 Boston Post Rd. was scheduled to be part of the Corbin Drive Redevelopment at some point in the near future. Although Carta, McAlister & Moore lawyers were very happy with the location of their existing office, they followed Cognetta’s advice to look at neighboring buildings to understand the available market options. After Cognetta and Hannigan led Carta on a search of appropriate buildings in the Darien and Norwalk areas, it became clear that the ideal location for their business would be to remain at 1120 Boston Post Rd., given the building’s location adjacent to I-95, visibility, walking distance to restaurants and shops, covered parking and office configuration.

Cognetta and Hannigan went to work on providing a solution for a refresh of Carta, McAlister & Moore’s space and flexible timing around the Corbin district. Cognetta led Carta to identify challenges the law firm had with the existing building and lease. The Choyce Peterson team then led negotiations with the building owner for terms that better suited the law firm’s needs.

Negotiations were handled in house by the landlord, The Deluca Construction Co. 

The renewed lease provides for substantially below-market base rent, free rent and a reset of the base year operating expense and real estate tax figures. Cognetta also negotiated improved building signage, addressed HVAC concerns, and obtained a new carpeting allowance.

“We thoroughly enjoyed partnering with Mark, Darcy and Glen, first in educating the team on the relatively finite alternatives available within the downtown Darien office market and then later, fine- tuning negotiations to accommodate the ideal renewal and relocation scenarios,” Cognetta said. “It all boiled down to two very different, yet attractive, propositions, each of which delivered on Carta, McAlister & Moore’s objectives, allowing the client to weigh and make a confident, well-informed decision.”

“The new lease terms will allow Carta, McAlister & Moore to operate with no business interruption while lowering overall occupancy costs for our firm,” Carta said “Adam and John worked tirelessly to represent us in a fair and timely fashion with our landlord, given this intricate situation with the owners of the land, the owner of the building and previous agreements with the existing tenants,” he said. “We are very pleased with the resulting economics and look forward to enjoying our newly refreshed office space in downtown Darien, while continuing to serve our clients.”