12/02/08

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Scinto builds empire one flu shot at a time

Robert Scinto

The happy hour plates of fried calamari that turned up at Il Palio, a Shelton, Conn., restaurant about a two-hour commuter train ride from New York, were more than a typical bar promotion.

The crispy seafood was the latest offering from Robert Scinto -- the largest individual commercial landlord in Fairfield County, according to brokers -- in his quest to retain tenants. Other freebies he provides to his lessees and their employees include annual flu shots, gym memberships, car washes and a 6,000-guest Labor Day party.

In fact, the way he runs his $600 million empire -- which includes 235 tenants across 3 million square feet of commercial space, half of it clustered in Shelton's Enterprise Corporate Park, an 11-building, 65-acre complex that's also home to Il Palio -- Scinto can seem more feudal lord than landlord.

"I've created a little city," says Scinto.

But there can be good economic sense in providing freebies, according to brokers.

In Scinto's buildings, rents average $22 a square foot, which is typical for the outer reaches of Fairfield County, say brokers. About $7 goes to his unique retention programs, meaning he clears about $15 a square foot, he says.

Every time he loses a tenant, it can cost $35 a square foot to get somebody new in the space. A 10,000-square-foot berth, then, would cost $350,000 to market and build out. Why not spend less on lemon ice, he reasons, which is scooped outside every warm-weather Thursday?

"The secret of my business is not raising rents, it's maintaining occupancy," Scinto says.

Paul Tortora, a commercial broker with Albert B. Ashforth, based in Stamford, gives Scinto credit for making the region attractive to business owners looking for a Fairfield County address, but with access to a labor pool that can be 25 percent cheaper than in nearby tri-state locations.

"He basically created the Shelton market," Tortora says.