Potential Buyer Making 'Aggressive' Push to Purchase GE Property

FAIRFIELD, CT — Fairfield’s highest taxpayer, Kleban Properties, is “aggressively” trying to purchase the 68-acre GE campus and redevelop the site in what figures to be a long process, according to the Connecticut Post.

Ken Kleban, president of the Fairfield-based real estate investment firm, was a member of the panel that spoke at the League of Women Voters’ public informational forum on the future of the GE campus and told the audience that they may not ultimately be the buyer of the property but they will do everything they can to purchase it and plan to submit a bid sometime next month, according to the Post.

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Kleban Properties last week entered into an exclusive agreement with Fairfield University to work on the development of a high-tech hub with a variety of educational components, including an executive education center, in the event that it purchases the GE property.

The Post reports that Kleban’s vision for the property also includes elements ranging from a software design center to recreation facilities, restaurants and hotels.

GE expects to be completely moved out of the campus and into its new Boston headquarters by 2018.

Kleban said there have also been discussions with a private, foreign K-12 school, as well as a non-profit recreational facility, but stressed that any non-profit use of the site wouldn’t affect property taxes because Kleban Properties would be the owner and remain the taxpayer, according to the Post.

Read more at the Connecticut Post here.