Millennials Are Coming Back Home to Danbury. Now What?

DANBURY, CT — The popular, and more often than not, angry, opinion about living in the greater Danbury area is that everyone is fleeing for lower taxed pastures.

Jim Fagan, senior managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, one of the world's largest commercial real estate businesses with properties throughout southwestern Connecticut, has a different perspective. He believes that the generation of millennials that moved away to college and never returned to their roots is about to make a big comeback. They're getting older, and the allure of Brooklyn and Boston has begun to dim.

"There's probably no place better to raise your kids than Westchester or Fairfield counties. You have four seasons, you're close to Manhattan, you have the Long Island Sound, you can go skiing in a couple of hours, a great public schools system, all these wonderful things. Where would you rather raise a family?" Fagan said. "The economics dictate you come out and find some places that are a little less expensive to live, and also have great public schools, a little bit more space to live."

Although the geography and the lower costs are attractive to the former big-city-dwellers, Fagan says many of the towns are going to need to alter their mindset if they hope to lure millennials back home.

"Historically, a lot of the people who have been in charge have a kind of 'not in my backyard' attitude, in terms of infrastructure and development. But the newest generation says, 'I want these things in my backyard. I want to be able to walk to a store, or the train station. I want amenities around my place.'"

Of course, one man's amenities are another's gentrification. But Fagan is adamant these are not "nice haves," but "need to haves."

"Heretofore, Connecticut has lagged in almost every single measure of growth. There are barely more people in Connecticut today than there were in 1990. There are barely more jobs today, maybe one or two percent over the past 30 years. The office space in Stamford is 30 percent vacant. People's houses are worth 20 to 40 percent less than they were if you live north of the parkway. So will there be more people coming in? Gosh, I hope so!" Fagan said.

Municipalities like Danbury that have not shied away from development have not seen a diminution in value, Fagan said. "Whereas if you were to look at some of the neighborhoods north of the Merritt Parkway where you have bigger lots and more restrictive zoning, some of those neighborhoods have gotten hurt pretty badly in terms of house prices."

In Danbury, Cushman & Wakefield represents Lee Farm Corporate Park and The Summit — the former Union Carbide Building. Fagan is a fan of the projections and aspirations in the Downtown Danbury Development Study, which recommends a number of innovations, including a $27 million transit hub. The report reasons that increasing the population of downtown Danbury with additional workers, visitors, and residents would also increase the demand for retail, personal service, restaurant, and entertainment uses.

"Danbury, I think, is doing quite well," Fagan said. "You're a little bit further away from New York City, but you can get to White Plains and the rest of Westchester County very quickly. It has some really cool things going on there, in terms of housing and urban development. You can go to Danbury and have a pretty reasonable lifestyle and not feel that you're paying too much for it. I think that Danbury and the surroundings have done pretty good job of creating those types of neighborhoods."

He expects that Danbury's neighbors to the north will need to likewise look into developing, or in some cases creating, their downtown areas.

"Maybe have a little more cluster housing, more amenities," Fagan said. "I think to the extent there is train access, that's great, maybe do things around the train, whether you let an apartment building be built, or add some more commercial space, to put some more 'there' there."

Those municipalities who fear such development will find themselves on the wrong side of local history, Fagan warns.

"If you just want to sit by yourself, and watch everything that you own go to zero, and you didn't want anything in your backyard, you'll get your wish!"

Although transit hubs are key for the commuters who will continue to travel back and forth into New York City every day, Fagan believes more and more Manhattan businesses will be setting up shop locally. He cites top accounting firm and business consultancy Deloitte, with offices in both New York City and southwestern Connecticut, as his prime example of where the wind is blowing.

"As these people (millennials) move out, the companies are going to follow. Before it used to be, 'Where do we want to be?' And that revolved around where the chairman lived. Now, the most important thing is, 'How do we attract and maintain an excellent workforce?'"

As for the opinion, popular in may parts of southwestern Connecticut, that state lawmakers may be squeezing too hard, Fagan remained hopeful.

"I think the new governor recognizes that in order to enjoy fiscal prosperity, we have to create the best growth environment for people. Whenever you pick a product up off the shelf, you look at it and say, what do I like or not like? And if we constantly frustrate those people and those companies, they'll go someplace else. If it's too difficult to use, people will buy another product. They'll move to Austin."