CIT Group opens office in Western CT city.

In an expansion move, leading commercial and consumer finance company CIT Group Inc., will open its first Fairfield County office in MerrittView, W&M Properties' Norwalk building, according to Jeffrey H. Newman, executive vice president of W&M, the marketing and managing agent for the building.

CIT Group, which just opened a global headquarters 505 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, will occupy 11,292 s/f on the sixth floor of MerrittView through 2015. The international company is expected to begin operations in the Norwalk office by the fourth quarter.

"CIT wanted a very nice Class-A environment, and they found that in MerrittView," says Tom Pajolek, CB Richard Ellis senior vice president, who represented the tenant. "They really liked that the building was very well maintained and managed, and the location was great for the company's employees who will work in this office."

CIT will join a growing list of prominent firms that have chosen MerrittView, including Reed Elsevier, Nestle, Cisco, Foster's Wine Estates Americas Company, SunGard and EMC.

"This lease shows how our Class-A, multi-tenanted office buildings continue to attract high-profile firms throughout metropolitan New York who want to be in a first-class building, with top-notch management and a great location near major highways," says Newman. "It further emphasizes that tenant and brokerage communities recognize the W&M brand as the equivalent of Class-A in midtown Manhattan."

This lease was part of a rare 18,000-s/f block of dividable space on the sixth floor that was available for the first time in several years at MerrittView. W&M upgraded the space and actively marketed it for multi-tenanting. It will continue to market the remaining 5,984 s/f.