Change Building’s Narrative To Change Its Future

As a businessman, Glen Nelson didn’t always have access to capital or other resources to firmly root some of his early business ventures.

But once the Smithtown, L.I., developer settled on real estate, he focused on “working the hardest and smartest’’ to deploy what he had to get what he needed done. Typically, that meant locating an asset, deciding what resources — money, manpower, etc. — to put into it, then aggressively marketing via individual brokers to fill the building with paying tenants as quickly as possible.

He did his first successful deal that way 20 years ago. He picked up a half-finished commercial building for $180,000 at a foreclosure auction on the steps of a Long Island courthouse. After investing another $200,000 to complete it, he says he sold it for $1 million.

“Once that bug gets into you, you can’t shake it,’’ Nelson says.

It’s the same strategy the president-founder of Matrix Realty Group used to acquire, rehab and lease the 1.3 million-square-foot former Union Carbide headquarters in Danbury.

It could also be a template, he and other experts say, for reversing the fortunes of other outmoded or dilapidated buildings, including ones in the Hartford area.

“The key is to change the narrative of the building,’’ said Matrix Realty Managing Director Andrew Dansker.

They point to the turnaround of the Matrix Corporate Center, which today has a dozen tenants occupying 70 percent of its space.

The center was built in 1979 for $400 million to house 2,800 Union Carbide employees on a bucolic 100-acre campus. Nelson last year paid $73 million for the building that was then at 60 percent occupancy. Pending and recently signed leases, including one for General Motors, may soon push that to 80 percent, says Aaron Smiles, Matrix’s operations director. The goal is 100 percent in 12 months, Smiles says. Currently, 1,700 people work in the corporate center.

Matrix Realty has another dozen commercial and multi-family holdings in seven states.

In Danbury, Matrix invested $10 million to upgrade major sections of the five-level building: Replacing the building’s 30-year-old carpeting; adding furnishings, energy-saving lighting and insulated wall coverings in common areas. It also refurbished and added to the complex’s array of 23 meeting, conference and board rooms, and two ballrooms.

Flanked by 2,670 covered parking spaces, the building was refitted with a host of conveniences: dry cleaner; coffee shop; gift shop that sells lottery tickets; plus a gourmet cafeteria with seating for 1,000.

Matrix officials say they have coordinated its tenant recruitment with the state Department of Economic Development. The agency says no financial incentives were provided to either the center or its tenants.

Renowned architect Kevin Roche of Hamden, who penned the structure, calls its one of his most memorable designs. (Union Carbide was broken up following the 1984 Bhopal, India gas-leak disaster that claimed more than 15,000 lives.)

There is likely to remain a market for such single-tenant structures, Roche says, despite the telecommuting trend.

“Who knows what will be,’’ he said.