The CT Real Estate Market

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome the Pulse of the Region,brought to you by the Metro Hertford Alliance.
The Metro Hertford Alliance collaborates with investorsand partners to elevate the Hartford region
through economic development work, convening thecommunity around shared challenges, and providing local
chamber support. Learn more about theirmission and how to get involved at Metrohartford
dot com. Pulse of the Regionis produced in partnership with OKILL. Originally

(00:25):
founded as a school for the blindin eighteen ninety three, Okkill has provided
holistic, person centered services for individualswith disabilities for over one hundred and thirty
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at okkillct dot org. Now here'syour host for Pulse of the Region,

(00:49):
KATEE. Balman. Hello, Hello, and welcome to Pulse of the Region,
the show where we highlight all ofthe incredible things happening here throughout our
Hertford region. I'm your host,Kate Bauman here today in the iHeartMedia Studios,
which you've probably heard me refer toas the Candy Cane Building in downtown
Hertford, our capital city, andtoday we are getting the pulse about the

(01:10):
commercial real estate market here in Connecticutand also here in our capital city of
Hartford. Very excited about the conversation, and I have three smiling guests looking
back at me, ready to beintroduced, so I won't take any more
time with my introduction here before introducingour guests. So all three are from
Century Commercial and they have their officeslocated here right in downtown Hertford. First

(01:34):
is the president, Mark do Close. Mark, welcome to the show.
Thank you, Kate, thanks forhaving us. Of course we're excited to
have you here. I would sayyou're kind of mister Hartford, so this
is you know, whether you wantthat title or not, you'll take it.
I was for saying, I meanin a good way, soal fantastic.
And next as you are joined bythe director of Brokerage and Advisory,
Chris do Close. So Chris,welcome to the show. Thanks for having

(01:56):
me. Kate. Certainly, certainlyand last but certainly not least, you
just happen to be on my left, so I guess I went right to
left. Here is we have StephanieRomano Shaw. She is an industrial specialist
for Century Commercial. So welcome,all right, thanks for having us,
of course, of course, sofirst things first. Always like to do
some introductions, so why not Mark, we'll put you on the hot seat
first, if you could tell usabout Century Commercial. Century Commercial so we

(02:19):
are Hertford based. We're a commercialreal estate services company that now offers construction
management, property management, and brokerageservices as well as facilities management. We
didn't start off that way. Westarted off in nineteen ninety one as a
brokerage company. I loved the localbrokerage company then and we started this firm
back then with a partner who's nowpassed, and we've evolved into a full

(02:40):
service real estate company based out ofHartford. Fantastic, fantastic. Well,
I'd love a little more kind ofeach of your roles. Why not,
Chris, we'll start with you.You talk a bit about your day to
day I guess sure, absolutely so. About six months ago I assumed the
director of brokerage role. Been atCentury Commercial four it'll be nine years this
match nice and seeing quite an evolutionfrom from when my father started the business.

(03:06):
Back in nineteen ninety one to whenI start, when I started at
Century Commercial to now, it's beenan interesting, interesting journey, I'm sure,
definitely so which we'll talk about.I'm sure some of that today,
which will be great. But Stephanie, first, kind of yours. Would
love to get kind of what youfocus on. So we are a brokerage
team. Well there's other brokers inthe firm, but we do brokerage,

(03:27):
so we specialize in industrial properties ourselvesowner user properties really, so that's kind
of our day to day. Isjust the regular brokerage part of it.
Okay, fantastic, No, that'sgreat and excited to get you know,
to me, maybe I'm a littlenerd on this, but hearing just what's
happening here in the market, howyou know Connecticut and Hartford is really comparing
to the national scope, I thinkis so important for all of us to

(03:47):
know. But before we dive intoall that good stuff, I really want
to make sure we spotlight what youroffice looks like in downtown because to me,
thank you, thank you, Mark, I apologizes I will not refer
to it now. So yes,with that, take it away, Mark
and tell us about what it isyou know I'm kidding, no, but
you're actually true. We forbid everybodyto call it office. That's a big

(04:08):
faux pas if you call it it'sa central commercial in office. But done
kidding. So it's called the Wreck, which, as you know, and
the REC stands for the real EstateCenter and it's a real estate center Hartford
because we're based in Hartford. I'dsay actually a trademark name. It is
Listen. Technically it is in partour office where CenTra Commercials operations are based.
But the Wreck is more than that. When we moved from one ninety

(04:30):
Trumble Street just after the start ofCOVID, we started developing the space and
we started thinking, hey, youknow what, maybe the space can be
something different than a regular office andsomething that went beyond just the COVID idea.
Right, we have open spaces andstuff like that, which was very
you know, everybody thought that wasgoing to go away and go into private
offices. So this really didn't dealwith that. It really dealt with building

(04:51):
a space that would allow us toactually use as a tool to show our
personality and our commitments and so ourcomm min set centric commercial are to our
people, it's to our clients,and it's to our community. And of
course that last piece is a bigone, and the wreck is a place
where we can come and meet andhave community meet with us in community from

(05:11):
a definition standpoint, is our literalreal estate community. And it's also our
community in Hartford, Connecticut, andthat is a lot of nonprofits. We've
had you over and your folks overthere. It's great. Well, I
want to work there every day.I'll call it whatever you want me to
call it, as long as youcan show up. Absolutely. The first
first person that ever walked into thewreck that was not affiliated with Centric Commercial
was a couple actually, and theywalked in and they looked around and go,

(05:33):
I could live here, Yes,which is so true, which we're
proud of. Which we're proud of. But it's really turned out to be
way more than we even had thoughtabout back when we opened it up,
opened the doors, like I saidin back in two thousand, Okay,
fantastic. Well, certainly, andyou mentioned that community impact, and you
know, Chris will see if youcould kind of elaborate with that because you've
talked about nonprofits. But Chris,from your vantage point, what have you

(05:55):
really seen kind of some of thepositives that have come out of this new
space. Yeah, good question.I mean we've switched offices how many times
in the past, in the previousin the previous nine years, I think
I've seen three offices we've got toallyfor various reasons. But our last office
at one ninety Trumble Street was rathersterile, uninspiring. It's very utilitarian,

(06:15):
but obviously the space is kind ofjust being in it is far more inspiring.
And obviously the events that we host, the people that we host,
et cetera, has been extremely beneficialto get in Centric commercial's name out there
are practitioners' names out there, etcetera. Yeah, absolutely, it's great
and it's also I think had suchit seems like an impact on the culture

(06:35):
of your team, and Stephanie,I'll have you, you know, kind
of chime in on this where it'seven too when you go to your website.
I love it's all about the cultureof the team, the team and
if you could talk on just howdoes that space and also just kind of
lead to and fuel that culture.Yeah, I mean it's fun. I
feel like that's a good place tostart. You kind of walk up the
elevator you have all the I meanin Christmas we had a huge, beautiful

(06:57):
tree, and we kind of haveall the beautiful It's just lovely. The
conference room's right there. But forour team, and I think I talk
about team Chris and I, butthen we also have the brokerash Company,
and then we have property management,construction, the whole team. In general,
everybody kind of works in silos.We go off and we do our
jobs, and that's really a wayto bring it all back together. We're

(07:17):
kind of popping in and out becausea lot of all those three divisions involves
being at different properties and being atsites. So the Wreck is always a
good place to come together and thendo your work together. It's just a
job where it really needs that,but it doesn't have that a lot.
It's very easy to get away fromthat and just go to sites do the
job and kind of staying your silos. So I don't know, the Reck's

(07:38):
great. I think every single personhas brought at least one of their kids
there and they have a foosball tableand they love it and it's got the
vibe. I mean, going backto Christmas, just because it was a
couple of months ago, we hadour Christmas party and we're all cracking up
sitting on couches under the tree.It was like being in your living room.
You really could live there, soit was great. It's got a
nice kind of homy vibe to it, even though everybody comes in and it's

(08:00):
a hard job. We do alot of hard work, so it's nice
to be able to kind of laughthrough that a little bit. Yeah,
it's supposed to take the edge offa little bit, and I think everybody
was like, well, why doyou work at home when you might work
at home because you want private work, but you also could take the edge
off. It's kind of a tempereddown a little bit. Hopefully you can
go to the wragging to the wreckand you can take that edge off and
actually relax a little more as wedo important work. We've got the three

(08:20):
seeds that we consider it to bethe wreck. It's create, connect,
and collaborate, And we tell everybodythat listen, if you're going to come
here to get private work done,probably not the place to go do it.
Stay home, right, okay ifyou so expect to come to the
wreck and be interrupted. Because itis a collaborative and creative environment. Okay,
that's great and certainly a lot ofgreat work you guys are doing not
only for Hartford but also for theregion, for the state of Connecticut.

(08:41):
So want to dive into that.But first things first, Mark, if
you don't mind it, I knowthis is going to be a big question,
but at a high level and understandingwe only have about thirty minutes for
the show, is if you couldkind of give us what are some of
the top trends that you're seeing inthe commercial real estate market really kind of
on a national scale, if youcould give again kind of just a couple
of bullet points on that. Yeah, so commercial real estate is a big

(09:01):
term, right, So it's anall encompassing term, right, So I
try to say, there's a wholebunch of different food groups in commercial real
estate commercial real estate and our worldis office in industrial is office in industrial
real estate. Obviously there's also amulti family real estate. There's retail.
I guess land would be a componentsome boot with self storage. But let
me speak, just because we haveonly a half hour, let me speak

(09:24):
for this industrial office market, whichis traditionally I listen. In general,
multi family world appears to be greatappears to be great. Locally, there's
a little bit of a softening,but it seems like it has come back
certainly Nationally. There's still, unbelievablythe idea that we are underbuilt in the
multi family world, and everybody's beensaying that for I can't tell you how
many years, and I can't tellyou how many years have everybody been saying,

(09:45):
well, the multi family world isready to crash, and it's not
fill hums along. Albeit gets softenedmaybe because of being over built a little
bit every once in a while.Office market. Listen, the office market
is just what everybody thinks it is, right. So the office market is
struggling, not only from this statepoint of valuations. Right when you start
talking about values of office real estatethroughout the country, and it doesn't matter
what city you're in. Maybe there'sa couple of micro markets, but I

(10:07):
can't even think of a couple ofmicro markets. And maybe, you know,
maybe in Miami might be an outlierto this in those type of cities,
but generally office is struggling. Vacanciesare higher, there's a lot of
talk about taking buildings down rather thantrying to retenant them. Just just trash
them. Right, Cities are havinga tough time. Towns are having a
tough time because valuations are going downas far as assessments and so tax bases

(10:28):
and things like that is a struggle, and that appears to be continuing right.
The industrial market has been I alwayssay, you know, when we
were talking about the industrial market aboutten years ago, nobody really wanted to
talk about the industrial market. Itwas like, oh, that's really cool
marketing. Good for you. Nowit's everybody wants to talk about the industrial
market, and rightfully self and itwas. It was already kind of that

(10:50):
way going into COVID, and itbecame even more so through COVID. So
the reality is that industrial markets havesoftened a little bit nationally. There are
some markets where it's actually very softoverbuilt. So if you have institutional markets
where they've got a lot of institutionalbuilders in those markets, usually major cities,
those have been overbuilt in many ways, so now they're trying to kind

(11:11):
of have that demand catch up.So struggle in a little bit markets like
ours, tighter markets because we don'thave as much institutional construction. That's the
good news is that it's not overlysoft the bad news as we have no
inventory. There's a lot of whatwe call secondary and tertiary markets that are
in that boat where become a tightmark, almost like the housing market where
you know, there's not a lotof house sales because there's just not a

(11:31):
lot of houses on the market.Right, Very similar to the industrial world.
Okay, very interesting, and nowConnecticut kind of from the industrial standpoint,
you know, chrisal of you chimein here, how does Connecticut look
compared to other markets, and youknow, kind of what stands out here
with the industrial market and maybe kindof a way on why companies would want
to come here or expand here.Yeah, good question. I mean,
look, we have a pretty seriousmanufacturing base here, aerospace in particular,

(11:56):
which we've seen kind of blow upquite a bit from the beginning of COVID.
Now it's also been you know,a more attractive market for big box
occupiers. You saw a lot ofnew construction through yeah, through the kind
of the early twenty twenties. Youknow, it's kind of softened up now
for the big box users. Butyou know through the early twenty twenty up

(12:18):
through what call it the first quarterof last year of last year, they
were hot to trot Connecticut absolutely absolutely. Okay, No, that's great because
that's where you're seeing some of thecorrect member but your home depots, Amazon's.
Is there any other you know,a lot of logistics and distribution,
it seems kind of is there anyothers or even too kind of what within
that industry are you seeing really blowup here? That's a good question,

(12:41):
that's a sad Yeah, yeah,it's it's really tough to say specifically.
Look, you know, from fromearly twenty twenty college January twenty twenty up
until call it the end of thesecond quarter of twenty three, we were
very much the market was extremely hot. The the industrial market in particular was

(13:01):
a beneficiary of COVID and rents appreciated, sale prices appreciated again from from call
it March of twenty twenty through againthe end of the second quarter of twenty
three, okay, and we've startedto see those those prices that'd be lease
rates and sale prices kind of stabilize. Since then, they've plateaued. They

(13:22):
haven't necessarily, you know, decreasequite yet, and I think that they'll
they'll stay pretty steady. So youknow that that big boom had all sorts
of industries kind of look in lookingto expand and move in if they weren't
here already, et cetera. Fantasticand just good to add. I think
the one of the misnomers is thatall these big box buildings are filled with

(13:43):
logistics companies, your home depots oryour xpos or your Amazons of the world.
And generally that's right, but overthe years we've also seen manufacturers and
district assemblers and those kind of companiesmove into these buildings because they need the
high bay big box properties. Youknow, Agramark up and Field, Eppendorf

(14:03):
up and Endfield. But we justhad ever source just take it. Was
it three hundred thousand square foot spaceup and up in onins of locks.
Okay, so not just traditionally justa logistics company. Okay, I appreciate
you bringing in because that's I thinkwhat we hear about, and so you
never know what's behind the walls.Sometimes exactly right, and it's and it's
just if I just fill in,that's a I won't get on my soapbox.
But that's a challenge when the townsgo out and they talk about prohibiting

(14:28):
these buildings from going up because Ithink they generally feel that there's going to
be tons of trucks walking up andrunning up and down the street. That's
not the case all the time.There are Manu felt like you said,
nobody really knows what's going on behindthose four walls, but there were manufacted
there is manufacturing going there. Okay, thank you for bringing that in and
with love seventy to kind of lookahead, you know at this year the
industrial market. What are kind ofyour you know, if you have the
crystal ball kind of where do youthink we're going this year and then potentially

(14:50):
you know, into twenty twenty fiveas well. Yeah, of course you
left me with the hardball question.I know, I love that. Sure,
take this to the bank everybody,No, they So I think in
twenty twenty four it's going to bea little bit more of the same as
last year, which we kind ofcame off that cliff of the time period
that Chris was talking about and evengoing back for the talking about these logistics

(15:13):
companies, because right there was arace. To your point, your question
probably came up because of what you'veseen. There was a race to get
everybody to the last mile right toget every retail store and then Amazon the
mecca of that right, they haveto be within whatever, five, ten,
fifteen miles of every door because nowwe all order from all of that
online. That I feel like hasleveled out and been achieved a bit.

(15:35):
Okay, so for at least ayear, maybe year and a half,
you can't just put up a buildingand say, well, Amazon's probably going
to be the one that's going totake this. We've really gone back to
the full market. I think cominginto twenty twenty four, what we've seen
is there's the same thing. I'mjust harping on the same thing. There's
no inventory, there's very little listings, but there's a lot of demand still.

(15:58):
People are out there needing space tolease or to own it. Like
we said, we do mostly owneruser stuff, so they're using their buildings
for a company. Okay, thelandlords and owners because there's not really anything
out there, they get to Ithink set the prices still for this coming
year. With that said, peoplearen't overpaying for the bad stuff anymore.
We had that last year where itwas like it doesn't matter, we need

(16:22):
space. The market's so hot.This everything we sold we sold for you
know, like three times more thanwe even thought it would go for.
We're not seeing that anymore. Peopleare saying, you can set the price
at where the market is, ButI also understand the value of what's going
on, and I'm not gonna theunless it's really good inventory. People aren't
just flying off to buy it justbecause they need somewhere to go. They're

(16:42):
thinking a little bit more, whichis usually an indication of the market as
a whole. I mean not toget into anything into the capital markets,
but even the interest rates affect someof our clients just as they're borrowers and
they have credit, and they havemachinery and they have stuff like that to
work on. So that's I hopesome of that flatline's a little for twenty

(17:04):
twenty five. And the best thingthat really could happen to us right now
is just more people coming to marketwith buildings. But again it's owner users.
They're using their buildings, so thingswould have to happen that are negative
for that to happen. So Idon't know if twenty twenty five, I
don't know if I wish for thatin twenty twenty five, are not really
but that's kind of where we're atright now, and it seems to be
trending that way from last year.Okay, fantastic, No, that's great,

(17:27):
Thank you so much for that,And kind of the last piece I
wanted, or maybe not last.I think we're now a couple more things.
But one other thing I want tomake sure we touch on is the
actual city of Hartford, because youknow, our capital city here in Connecticut
is so important and you know,Mark would love if you could give again.
I'm going to you with the highin the sky question first and then
we'll dive a bit deeper. Butreally, what are you seeing in the
commercial real estate industry especially you hadmentioned kind of the office, but really

(17:49):
the trends overall in the city,if you could talk a bit about that.
Sure, I think people know majorityof our transactions on the brokered side
and actually construction manage, property managersite are going to be outside the central
business district. That's not our that'snot our core, although we do a
little bit of business there. Ourcommitment is to the city though, even
though we might not be doing transactions, we'd like to have a presence in

(18:11):
the city. We think the cityis very important, you know, if
we don't have a strong Hartford,then we probably don't have a strong Hartford
region. And I think that's beenprobably proven over the years. We're just
talking about it out on the lobbybefore we came in here. I think
the narrative for Hartford does not matchreality for Hartford, right, And I
think that's been an issue for anumber of years. You know that that's
part of what you guys are tryingto change, right, exactly part of

(18:32):
your effort, and we appreciate thatpoint blank. Listen. There's a lot
of not a lot of people inthe in the buildings, is the narrative,
right, Well, I don't know. I'm parking on the sixth,
seventh and eighth floor my parking garagemore and more often, so there's somebody's
in the city cars here now exactly. When you look at what's happening down
in Pitt and I'm sorry, PrattStreet, right. I was just at

(18:55):
a grand opening of a speakeasy lastnight. Yes, that was very cool,
and so that was really really cool, and I think it's indicative of
what's going on when you look atwhat's happened on Pratt Street, when you
look at Yard goats. When youlook at all these things and the Civic
Center, what's happening. I stillcall it the Civic Center. That's all
right, I'm cool with that.For those who don't know the Excel Center,
A we the Excel Center, thankyou. And what's happening there and

(19:15):
the commitments that are starting to bemade there. I think it's the city
strong. I think that it's niceto see more people living in the city,
and obviously I think the apartment developershave been very happy with that.
I think CRDA has been a hugepart of that. I think we all
know that, and I think thatit's nice to see that that's continuing.
And it's just really cool to seebodies down in the city, people actually

(19:37):
walking, walking dogs. It's becomemuch more of that. They can see
her office space. Absolutely, it'sa challenge, but that's again that's a
national challenge, and people want tomake that a heart for challenge. It
is a challenge effort, but it'sa national challenge, right and quite candidly,
thirty thirty two whatever percent it isright now, it's high. We've
seen thirty to thirty five percent vacancyrates here before, so hopefully you can
absorb that. By the way,we just sort of HELCT move back downtown.

(20:00):
Yes, from Windsor right. Sothat's a great sign of companies who
maybe did go out to the suburbsand say, you know what, we
actually like the vibrancy of the city. So we think the leadership here has
been wonderful. And I think byall accounts, I don't know the new
mayor, but I think it soundslike the new mayor is going to continue
the tradition. So yeah, andif we always care usign your guys' point
of view on that, right,because you're much more entrenched in that.

(20:22):
But we're committed to the city.That's one of the reasons why we had
the wreck. So the wreck isour attempt to reach out to the city
and be a good member of thecommunity. Now completely agree with you on
all fronts. I think definitely thecity with Mayor Bronan's leadership, has really
transitioned in with Mayor Arunin, Iwill I'm still trying to get his last
name or I can spin it offreally quick. So I want to go
with Mayor runin and certainly some realpositive things here, and you know what,

(20:45):
would love to hear from from eachof you is as you're speaking with
owners and people looking for you know, kind of hey, where do I
go next? Where's this? Whatare you hearing on why they're coming to
Hartford or why they're coming to Connecticut. I think sometimes you hear it first
you're front lines and would love foryou to share, but there so,
Chris, I'll put you on thespot for that one first. Yeah,
yeah. So on the on onthe manufacturing front, we have a lot

(21:07):
of supporting business. Like I saidearlier, of the aerospace industries, obviously
have a lot of big aerospace manufacturershere, Barnes, Praut, raytheon and
uh and so you have a lotof a lot of those manufacturers choose Connecticut
because it's it's where the action ishappening. And then obviously there's various other
manufacturers that are here for for forother reasons. But in the logistics side

(21:30):
of it, you know, Idon't want to call, you know,
Connecticut the highway between Boston and NewYork. But yeah, exactly, and
that's not at all what I mean. I think we're strategic. It's a
it's a strategic benefit of Connecticut.So you're here because you have access to
these these these major areas that thatyou can't service from these these other more

(21:51):
air quotes major markets. So,yeah, choosing here for logistics purposes,
purposes of where there's there's larger uhpresence of airspace manufacturers, et cetera.
Okay, that's great, Sephanie.What else would you kind of chime in
there on kind of what you're hearingfrom partners that you're working with. Yeah,
I think that Connecticut gets I don'twant to say a bad rap for

(22:12):
this, because there's a lot oftruth to this. We are obviously can
be a very expensive state, butwe're talking about our job right and the
logistics of we are a cheap statein comparison a price per square foot to
our neighbors, for sure, Bostonand New York. We are working with
a tenant right now and they're Imean, they're a technology they're basically just

(22:34):
to someone of a technology company.They're really looking at They're from Connecticut while
they're looking, but they're looking atthe costs of Connecticut and still a Colon
Valley. I mean, it's ok. We are so much cheaper and right,
logistically, we have a lot ofstrongholds. We have sure are access
to some of these major cities,but we have water, we have trains,
we can get north south, wecan get this whole coast, we

(22:56):
can get all the way west.So there's a lot of that. I
mean, that's kind of what itcomes down to for a lot of people,
and in the pandemic specifically. Obviously, that's kind of what's on the
front of what brought us to wherewe are right now and all of our
markets. But people were just theydidn't have to be in these expensive cities
because they weren't doing anything in theexpensive cities, So they started looking at

(23:18):
neighboring, cheaper cities where they couldcome back. When hopefully this all ended
and we are, we're so muchcheaper for the value that you get than
a lot of these other I guessI'm going to call it metropolis as basically.
One thing I would add to thatit would be I remember when I
first this goes back a long waysbecome an SIOAR and we had to give
a answer to a case study,right, and the question came to me

(23:38):
is like, Okay, mark yourConnecticut and you've got the company has half
a dozen different places to go inthe country, and they picked out what
I forget what the cities were,and they said, give us a pitch
on why you would come to Connecticutand I said, well they what do
they do? When he said,well, we're widget manufacturer, and I
said, well then you shouldn't cometo Connecticut. And he was stunned by
the ans like, Okay, Iwasn't expecting here, stunned by the answer

(23:59):
because I tryed believer. I mean, at one point in time, Connecticut
did try to reach out to everybodyand tried to be the place for everyone.
We're not the place for everyone becauseat some level the cost of doing
business. And instead we started tohighlight the company that the industries that Connecticut
had talent and education for right,So you had the educational background force and
you have the people force, andthat's where these companies will gravitate to because

(24:22):
that's where they can find their people. Even though they might have to pay
a little more, they can findtheir people. Albeit we still are short
a ton of people, but atleast we made our name for certain industries.
As you said, yes, thelife sciences is a growing sector of
pharmaceutical We've got the eurospace and thosekind of companies, and we have the
talent that matches a definitely, No, certainly. I think our talent pool
is sometimes underappreciated where you go toother parts of the country and it is

(24:45):
not the same at all. Yeah, it's great, and man, it's
great that you got a talent pool, but it's not a talent pool for
our workforce for our needs. Yes, exactly, exactly perfect. Anything else
you want to chime in on that, Chris, I think we covered it
all. Okay, fantastic. Well, then the last piece is you know,
also to in addition to all thegreat work you guys are doing,
is the quality of life. Andhey, at the end of the day,
is a business owner want to livein Connecticut? And so if you

(25:06):
don't mind, I put each ofyou on the spot kind of personally,
Mark smiling he must have listened tothe show before. But each of you
could share kind of just what doyou love most about living and working here?
And I don't know who wants totake the question first. I'm open
you guys because I'm always curious tothis. Yeah, yeah, I'm old,
you still have good opinions, areso Yeah, I mean, I'm

(25:26):
happy to start. I mean,I was I was raised in South Windsor,
Connecticut, so it's I wasn't atransplant. And I mean ever since
I was a kid, I loveliving in Connecticut. Couldn't tell you exactly
why up until I started raising afamily here. And now that we have,
you know, a four year oldand a four and a half year
old and a five five month old, you know, those those benefits of

(25:47):
being here are far more apparent.You know, access to you know,
if you if you want to goout into the hills and and hike and
have a certain lifestyle, you couldgo and do that. If you want
access to the downtown areas, youwant to have a night life, you
have you have that as well.You know, I'm not a city guy
by any stretch of the imagination,and I think Connecticut kind of brings the
best of both worlds. You havethe shoreline, which Stephanie, Stephanie lives

(26:11):
down there with her family as well, and it's just fantastic to have all
these Yeah, we're central to NewEngland, es central essentially, and it's
a fantastic place to be. It'sexcellent, all right, Stephanie. That's
a tough one to follow up nowit is. I feel like it's so
funny because I feel like that's whatConnecticut is. Where other people tell you,

(26:32):
like show you how you feel aboutConnecticut. You would never say,
oh, I love Connecticut because ofthis. But I went somewhere recently and
they were talking about New England andConnecticut. It was somewhere in the Midwest.
It was a conference for one ofthese commercial related companies, and they
were like, I've never been,but I always assume it's like Europe where
you can get to the city.You can get to New York and at
Boston you can get into the hills, you can get into Maine, Portland,
whole different kind of city, farmland, water. And I was like,

(26:56):
that's exactly what Connecticut. It's great. And then my husband will laugh
at me because every vacation we've everbeen on we stepped foot. In the
first three days, I'm like,we need to move here. Why do
we live in Connecticut? A dayfour, I'm like, I hate I
never want to come back here.I love Connecticut. I can't believe we
even came on this vacation. Whywouldn't we just stay home? But I

(27:18):
mean, we're water people. Welove the water. So we're done at
the shore, and it's a thirtyminute drive into the city of Harford,
it's a thirty minute drive into newHaven. We can we have most people
in Connecticut have family in New Yorkand in Boston, and you can hop
on, take trains, cars.It's just it's the best there's We always
say, we don't think there's anywheremore beautiful than the Connecticut Shore, and
then it has all these associated benefitswith you know, Hartford, New Haven,

(27:42):
and then all the other things thatcome with it. So we love
it. And I grew up heretoo. Again, I was not a
transplant. I went to Yukon,so I didn't even I grew up in
Vernon. Yukon's like two exits fromthere. I didn't go far all and
I always thought I would, andthen I just never found anywhere that was
that was better. I just loveit here. So I don't know,
there's no one reason I can't putit to like a list together. But

(28:03):
when other people tell you, I'mlike, yeah, that Connectic gets a
way better than that. Yeah,So I don't know. That's great,
all right, Mark, Yeah,listen, they said it right, So
I don't try not to repeat it. I grew up in Connecticut and with
a native of I lived in Massachusettsfor a few years and it was fine,
but to move back to Connecticut becausethat's where I'm from. I do
think that a lot of people believethat when you're from Connecticut and like you're

(28:26):
tied to Connecticut just because you youknow, you can't go anywhere else.
It's like, no, you cango anywhere you want in the country.
You go anywhere you want. Butthe reason why these people are staying is
because they love Connecticut. And Itraveled a lot obviously for US Iowa,
as you know, and went toa lot of different cities in North America
and a lot of different cities inEurope. And I think Steph, you
you explained it well. I thinkindividually there's other places that are like if

(28:48):
you wanted skiing, yeah, wouldI move to Connecticut? No, I'd
moved to Utah, Right. IfI wanted to shore, would I maybe
go to San Diego? I don'tknow, Maybe I would, I don't
know. But collectively, this haseverything, and it's top five probably for
a lot of those categories. Completelyagree well, all fantastic answers appreciate all
of the conversation today. Would lovewhere can people go to learn more about

(29:10):
Century Commercial and all the work you'redoing here in the community. Want me
an answer, Yeah, sure,Hi, you got it. It's easy.
Listen. We're located at the Wreckat one sixty Trumbull Street in Hartford,
and everybody is welcome. We'd loveto have you stop by the wreck.
Our phone numbers eight six five toeight eight eight four. You can
reach me, you can reach Chris, you can reach Sephanie or anybody else
that care to reach. We'd loveto talk to you, and we're going

(29:33):
to be there for a long time. We're not going anywhere. I like
it. I like it. Thisis wonderful to hear. Well again,
thank you so much for being onthe show today. Really appreciate it and
truly appreciate all the work you're doingfor our region, first state, and
for a capital city. So lookforward to being at the wreck again.
I appreciate it. I'm inviting myselfwhether you're going to have me or not,
so we'd love to have you.Kate. Thank you for the opportune
to day, of course, ofcourse, and for all the details about
today's show. You can visit metroHartford dot com. We'd like to give

(29:56):
a thank you to our partner Okill, and of course thanks to you for
listening. I'm Kate Bauman. Goout and make today a good day here
in Connecticut.