CEO Steve Hafner
KAYAK — From page 1
ters in Norwalk, Kayak to date has required just a third of the space its new quarters offers. CEO Steve Hafner runs the company from Connecticut, while CTO Paul English manages Kayak’s larger technology operations center in Concord, Mass. With IPO proceeds totaling more than $86 million after payments to investment banks and other expenses, Kayak has a fresh cache of cash upon which to draw – with apparent implications for its local presence given its new, expanded quarters in Stamford. At press deadline, Kayak had yet to
STALEMATE — From page 1
of the office of economic development in Stamford. The city has had urban renewal plans for the space for roughly 30 years, but when plans started to move forward in the late 1990s, opposition arose from the neighborhood. The Urban Redevelopment Commission (URC) exercised eminent domain to buy the land under Curley’s Diner for $233,000, but the owner, Maria Aposporos, said the offer wasn’t enough. The city had plans to sell the land, to Corcoran Jennison Development for $4.6 million. “$233,000?” asked Aposporos, who still owns the diner. “I couldn’t buy (a) doghouse in the city of Stamford.” Roughly 7,000 people signed a petition and the issue went all the way to the state Supreme Court in 2002, which ruled in Aposporos’ favor. The land was not in disrepair and the city didn’t have the right to sell it to a developer under eminent domain. Now, 13 years later, Aposporos said she
release its second-quarter results. In the first quarter, the company earned $4.1 million as sales increased 39 percent to $73 million. In its public filings and some other venues, Kayak, Hafner and English have warned of the potential ramifications of Google Inc.’s 2011 acquisition of ITA Software Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., company whose software handles back-end bookings for airlines. Microsoft Corp. has also made aggressive moves into the online travel sector. “The online travel category is the biggest category by far – equal in size to almost every other ecommerce category combined,” Hafner told Bloomberg Television last month. “We actually have a partnership with Google and a partnership with Microsoft, so overall we feel very confident in our prospects … I think we’ll do just fine.” With $86 million in its pocket, Kayak is now navigating its own options for expansion, including international opportunities. In May, the company opened an office in Zurich, Switzerland. “I think one of the things people are excited (about) Kayak as a company is the scalability,” English said. “If you look at the revenueper-employee, our productivity against not only online travel sites, but even general search engines, we rank pretty high. We’re continuing to scale users and revenue, and we don’t think we actually need to expend a lot more money in running the company. Right now we’re just taking profits coming in and putting that into more and more marketing.”
wouldn’t have minded giving up the diner but that she didn’t want to get “robbed” and “thrown out on the street” like other business owners. “I wasn’t going to be another victim,” Aposporos said. “This diner belongs to me.” Corcoran Jennison last year submitted documentation to the URC indicating that it had spent more than $7 million on development plans for the area, including a $1.6 million loan to the URC to acquire Curley’s Diner. Rather than litigate however, Trinity Financial Inc. stepped in and bought the development rights. The move has potentially saved the city from a $7 million lawsuit. Jumpstarting the project, plans are moving forward. This time around they’re building around the diner, said Marzuq Muhammad, assistant project manager at Trinity. Approvals are expected next month and construction is to begin before the end of the year. “As you can see from the renderings,” Muhammad said, “our proposed development will dramatically transform this area of downtown Stamford.” Trinity has chosen to pay a $5 million
LOOK KEY — From page 1
youth want to move there. Roughly 60 percent of buildings in the counties were built between 1973 and 1988 and many are in need of a redesign, said William Cuddy, CBRE Inc. executive vice president. “Inventory requires constant reinvestment,” Cuddy said. “(It) can’t sit for years for a redesign. It needs to happen faster.” Additionally, the area could use a lesson in “being cool,” said Kurt Wittek, Black Rock Realty CEO. Wittek is behind the Fairfield Metro Center project that will develop the area surrounding the new Fairfield Metro Station. A hotel and residential apartments will be set along an 11-acre waterfront park and office and retail spaces will be built connecting to the train station. Young adults want entertainment options after work, as well as being able to walk to retail stores and be close to trains into Manhattan, Wittek said. When they work, they want well-designed spaces with natural light and fresh air, which typically isn’t a building that’s 30 years old. By offering the best in convenience, such as access to Zipcars, day care centers, good food and cheap rent, the area could differentiate itself as well, said Jeffrey Newman, executive vice president of Malkin Properties. There are 14 colleges and 30,000 students in the area, which opens up a lot
of opportunities, Cuddy said. If there was more integration between the colleges and the workforce, the area could better retain the youth that already lives and grew up in the region. Funding and guiding entrepreneurs in and out of college would do just that, said Justin Krebs, principal at Normandy Real Estate Partners. Silicon Valley is a suburb of San Francisco near Stanford University, said Julia Klein, a Stamford real estate attorney who attended the event. What’s stopping Fairfield and Westchester counties? They are suburbs of New York City near Yale University, Columbia University and New York University. Krebs said business incubators drive growth, leading to more companies coming here to find talent. “Early stage funding is what is going to start companies,” Krebs said. “I’m optimistic, even though we have some challenges ahead of us.”
An artist’s rendering of Trinity Financial Inc.’s proposal for downtown Stamford.
fee in lieu of fulfilling Stamford’s requirement that 10 percent of all new apartment buildings be affordable housing. But down the road, Trinity has agreed to give adjacent land to the Stamford Housing Authority to have affordable housing built with the company’s fee. Back at Curley’s, Aposporos said she’s
still open to sell at a reasonable price, but doesn’t have plans of leaving anytime soon. She said she likes the new developer and the city’s new leaders, but said she plans to pass down the family business to the next generation. “I want to be here,” she said. “I’m happy to be here.”
6 Week of August 6, 2012 • Fairfield County Business Journal a division of Westfair Communications, Inc. • www.westfaironline.com