Greenwich sale smashes all the Fairfield records.

Cushman & Wakefield announced the completion of the sale of UST Inc.'s corporate headquarters building at 100 West Putnam Avenue in Greenwich, Conn. The Class-A office property was purchased by Antares Investment Partners, LLC for $130 million.

The sale price is the highest ever paid for a vacant office property in Fairfield County.

UST Inc. will relocate approximately 350 employees to a 140,000 s/f headquarters at 6 High Ridge Park in Stamford in September.

"We are extremely pleased with Cushman & Wakefield and the job they did marketing the property and managing the bid process, all of which resulted in an expedient sale that accomplished our goal of unlocking substantial value for our shareholders," said Murray S. Kessler, chief executive officer of UST Inc.

The purchase of 100 West Putnam Avenue by Antares is one of many recent acquisitions made by its managing partners and co-founders Joseph Beninati and James Cabrera.

Paul Kauffman, executive director, Transaction Services for Cushman & Wakefield of Connecticut, together with Andrew Merin, vice chairman, Gary Gabriel, executive director, and Patrick Colwell, senior director of Cushman & Wakefield's Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group, represented the seller and procured the purchaser.

"This completion of this transaction demonstrates the strength and demand of the Greenwich office market," said Kauffman.

"The building was on the market for a short amount of time and generated an enormous response from the investment community. We achieved a record sale price for an unoccupied asset."

"Said Merin., "This was an occasion for a savvy investor like Antares to obtain a Class-A office property in a submarket with one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country."