AQR Seeks Tenants for Unneeded Space at Its Greenwich Offices

(Bloomberg) -- AQR Capital Management, the quantitative fund manager run by Cliff Asness, is seeking to sublet space in three Greenwich, Connecticut, office buildings.

The Greenwich-based firm is working with brokerage Cushman & Wakefield to find new tenants for about 86,000 square feet (8,000 square meters) at One and Two Greenwich Plaza and 55 Railroad Ave., according to people with knowledge of the matter. Representatives for AQR and Cushman declined to comment.

AQR may choose not to sublet all the space it has put on the market and, even if it does, the firm would still occupy a larger footprint in Greenwich than it did last year, one of the people said. The 55 Railroad Ave. space was intended as a temporary solution until more space became available at One and Two Greenwich Plaza, considered the firm’s main campus. That space was taken on in anticipation of future growth.

Asness said in May that AQR’s trademark factor investing strategies had been disappointing. Investors pulled about $2.7 billion from AQR funds in the first half of 2019, following withdrawals of $8.1 billion last year, according to estimates by Morningstar. The firm reduced its headcount by a low single-digit percentage, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this year.

AQR, which was founded in 1998, managed $194 billion as of June 30, down from $203 billion as of March 31 and $226 billion a year earlier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net, Daniel Taub, Christine Maurus

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