First Stamford Place, Stamford, CT

    In addition, the portfolio is benefiting from the tight office market in Greenwich, Connecticut, attracting tenants from there to W&M's Metro Center and First Stamford Place, which are situated in nearby Stamford at the Stamford Transportation Center. Typical of the trend was the Bank of Ireland's decision in February to move its Wholesale Financial Services and Global Markets groups from Greenwich and Manhattan into more than 20,000 square feet at First Stamford Place, for a lease term that extends through 2017.

    "We've worked hard to ensure positive brand awareness of W&M Properties in the brokerage and tenant communities," says Jeffrey H. Newman, Executive Vice President of W&M. "Our properties are seen as synonymous with everything that is first class, including location, technology, life-style amenities and management responsiveness, all of which are essential ingredients for our tenants' successful recruitment and retention of the most talented employees."

    He adds that many decision-makers who live in the suburbs recognize that W&M buildings not only offer Manhattan Class-A quality but easy physical access to Manhattan itself.

    Mr. Newman notes that the Bank of Ireland transaction also is indicative of W&M's continual efforts to enhance the quality of each property's tenancy by seeking out and, if necessary, assembling space to make room for the most creditworthy tenants. For example, the bank, an institution that is more than 200 years old, joins Citigroup, Legg Mason, Elizabeth Arden, Odyssey Reinsurance, and world-renowned information services conglomerate Thomson Corporation among First Stamford Place's rock-solid major tenants.

    A total of eight new tenants from Manhattan and Greenwich have signed leases recently within W&M's 1.85-million-square- foot office building portfolio, which includes Ten Bank Street in White Plains, N.Y., 500 Mamaroneck Avenue in Harrison, N.Y., and Merritt View in Norwalk, Conn., as well as Metro Center and First Stamford Place.