Westport-based Bridgewater Associates, the town’s largest employer, says it will temporarily relocate about 400 employees to Stamford during renovations to its Glendinning/Ford Road complex.
A Bridgewater Associates parking lot at its Glendinning headquarters flooded in a March 2011 storm. Proposed improvements are intended to alleviate the flooding potential. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Neil Engler for WestportNow.com
The hedge fund, with more than 1,200 employees in Westport, had threatened to leave Westport for Stamford in 2012 only to change its mind a year ago. (See WestportNow June 27, 2014)
In a statement, Bridgewater said approvals are still pending for work on its 21.7-acre campus near the Weston line.
“As a result of this renovation, Bridgewater would need to relocate approximately 400 employees for up to two years,” the statement said. “To accommodate this potential relocation, the firm plans to secure 135,000 square feet of temporary swing space in Stamford.”
Plans for the Glendinning/Ford Road complex call for an underground parking garage, a two-story addition to an existing building, outdoor terraces, patios, an amphitheater, a pedestrian sky bridge over the Aspetuck River, a new alternative wastewater disposal system, and widening of its Route 57 entrance.
Impetus for the renovations included repeating flooding of the Bridgewater complex parking lots during storm events.
As part of the aborted plan to move to Stamford, the state offered $115 million in incentives to create an additional 1,000 jobs in the state.
It was not clear if any of the state funding will apply to the temporary move.
