In some ways, 2023 at CIL was about moving, but in other ways, it was about staying. I’m going to share two stories, which both seem at first to be about moving, but they’re really not.

The first story concerns our geographic expansion. Several people have asked me why we’re “moving” to other states when there is still a need for our services in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The simple answer is that we’re not changing the support and services in our traditional geographies, we’re simply trying to help more people. The services and real estate solutions we provide are needed everywhere.

We can’t be everywhere (at least not yet) but we can grow to help more people. We’re just expanding our view of the community to be based more on common goals and needs, rather than physical location. Rest assured, we’re still committed to helping here...as well as there.

The second story, and the most obvious moving story, concerns our change of address. We have physically moved our global headquarters (we like to think big). So, that’s a real move but let’s look closer: we actually only moved about 1,650 feet and we’re still in the same city and the same neighborhood. Since we own both buildings, you might ask why we would bother relocating when it didn’t really move us to somewhere new.

The answers to that question are somewhat complex, but the main reasons have to do with our tenant partners, our community connections, and our commitment to finding solutions to complex real estate issues. In 2010, we moved to our offices at 157 Charter Oak Avenue after renovating the building for Klingberg Family Centers. They didn’t need the entire building, so we relocated to the ground and third floors from rented space in Wethersfield. Last year, Klingberg expressed interest in expanding their lease to include the whole building, and we were happy to comply.

At the same time we were having the expanded lease discussions with Klingberg, we were having discussions about the Connecticut Nonprofit Center operated by The Alliance at our Atlantic Works property at 75 Charter Oak. After ten years of trying, The Alliance had reached the conclusion that they could no longer support the Nonprofit Center. They were planning to vacate their space, and the conference rooms they had previously. 

Many of our tenants at Atlantic Works were members of the Nonprofit Center, and they were understandably concerned about the viability of staying without access to the conference rooms. There were also other services being provided by The Alliance, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving provided lifelines by funding and supporting the community in the replacement of lost services. The problem of conference and meeting space remained.

The solution was not obvious. There was a vacant office space at Capewell Lofts, an adjacent building we own, which was previously a wellness center for Family Life Education. Additionally, there was a vacant suite of three small offices at the Atlantic Works and one existing conference room we still controlled. We agreed to share those spaces and reconfigure them for meetings. To decrease costs and better manage the concept, we moved our headquarters to the vacant space at Capewell Lofts and created The Atlantic Works Conference Center (AWCC). We are thankful that, again, the Hartford Foundation made this move possible through grants to support the required technology and physical upgrades.

So, although we have a new address, and we’re expanding geographically, we haven’t moved from our neighborhood or our commitments. 

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