WWE's old Stamford HQ could become apartments after $3.75M sale

For more than 30 years, the six-story building at 1241 E. Main St., on Stamford’s east side, housed the headquarters of one of Connecticut’s best-known companies. Now, it is poised for a transformation under new ownership.

WWE, which is now headquartered in downtown Stamford, last month sold 1241 E. Main for $3.75 million to real estate firm MB Financial Group, which has offices in Branford and Boston. Reflecting its experience with redevelopment, MB Financial wants to convert the property into an apartment complex.

“The location is superb,” Michael Massimino, CEO and managing partner of MB Financial, said Friday. “It’s on the Stamford-Darien line, and it overlooks Long Island Sound and the Noroton River. The views of Long Island Sound really make this property unique.”

A message left for WWE was not immediately returned in time for this story.

MB Financial’s plans for the redeveloped 1241 E. Main, which they expect will have more than 80 units, will be reviewed by local zoning officials. Assuming the project navigates that process, the redevelopment could be completed by the first half of 2027, according to Massimino.

“Our intention is definitely to do this within the existing building,” Massimino said. “Right now, we’re in our conceptual phase, as far as laying out density and common-area amenities.”

Redevelopment of 1241 E. Main would be part of a local trend. In recent years, a number of office complexes in Stamford have been approved or proposed for redevelopment.

Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons said in her State of the City speech last April that conversion of empty commercial buildings into residential properties is one way to address the need for more affordable housing. It could also grow the grand list and bolster local home values, she said at the time.

MB Financial has experience with redevelopment. In Clinton, several buildings are being repurposed through its Station at Clinton project. When completed, it will have about 200 units across apartments and town homes. The first component, a 45-unit apartment complex known as The Grand, opened in 2023.

“It was formerly a 40,000-square-foot data center. We did a third-floor addition on top of it. The floor plates are very similar to the WWE building,” Massimino said of The Grand.

MB Financial’s portfolio also includes The Lofts at 250 Greene in New Haven. The 23-unit apartment complex, which opened in 2020, repurposed former convent and school buildings of St. Michael’s Church.

As for WWE, its decision to sell 1241 E. Main was not surprising. When the company announced in March 2019 that it would relocate its headquarters to downtown Stamford, it said that it expected to sell 1241 E. Main. The building was also known as Titan Towers when the company was based there, from the early 1990s until 2023.

Among other deals related to its headquarters relocation, WWE recently sold for nearly $7.5 million the site of its former production studio on Hamilton Avenue in Stamford, a property that stands a few blocks from 1241 E. Main.

Meanwhile, WWE has settled in at its current headquarters at 677-707 Washington Blvd. Company officials have said that the hub covers about 400,000 square feet, including offices in the property’s 13-story tower and production space in the adjacent seven-story pavilion. WWE officials have also said that the company would have more than 800 people working at the new base, after the company had opened all of its space there.

Last April, WWE announced the opening of an approximately 30,000-square-foot production facility, with five studios, at the current headquarters.

source: ctinsider.com