102 replies to this topic

[The Voice of Reason]

I met the mayor on Saturday.  he was walking through pipes in the valley, so I just had to say something to him.

In all of a 2 minute conversation this is the jist...

RFP for 101-111 pearl was discussed my him and his peeps last week.  not sure how soon anything will happen, but I told him he needs to package them together.

when told we needed any and all apartments downtown, he also mentioned apartments at front street, I said "is that really happening??????" heavy on the doubt.
he said the theater just put permits in to planning, so I guess it MIGHT finally be moving forward on the retail side (this did not answer my apartments question)

and I thought I heard him say that there are over 1000 apartments in the workd (including front street and the ones that are more concrete like Hollander and the Plaza).

that sounded like the sum total of every possible rumored and far fetched plan, so maybe he has talked to potential developers, or whatever, but I am sure most of it is pretty far off or never happening.  heck he might be counting the still-not-canceled Northland tower, but as we all know that aint happening.

still, nice guy, clearly on the campaign trail.   but so you all know, he was walking down to coltsville to pitch the national park thing, that was in the courant on Friday

[The Voice of Reason]

So I was randomly thinking about phase 2 of the Marriott.  As much as I know the city does not need this to happen as there is not enough demand.   And the developer has little reason to expand, and it might not even be economically intelligent even if it were in demand....

But I gotta say, adding 291 rooms to that hotel would be a good thing for the city.

Conventions that would look at Hartford would go up significantly, and its a real shame we do not even get looks because of this one small fact.  we have NO hotels with 500+ 600+ or 700+ rooms.  not sure if the conventions that require a 1000+ room hotel would give us a look even if we did have one, so Im not even going there.

If front street is moving forward as Mayor Pedro told me last weekend.  I would love to see a street that had a bigger better convention business because of the Marriott, and a front street that at least put SOME life into Colombus, and a residential component in Phase 2 as again Pedro said.

while the hotel is there at 409 rooms, the lost convention business is what bothers me, and the fact that with a operating Front street, the city becomes even more attractive to conventions.

just a shame is all, but I suppose there is a glimmer of hope that those other developments COULD lead to an eventual phase 2.    thats all, just idle musings

[MadVlad]

Just add a damned casino....

[HartfordTycoon]

MadVlad, on 03 October 2011 - 08:34 PM, said:

Just add a damned casino....

I agree. A casino would be the ultimate game changer for Downtown Hartford. I don't think it would adversely affect the city. Hartford will not turn into Atlantic City. We already have so much more of a corporate presence a casino would just be something extra for entertainment value and to attract more visitors. It would also provide plenty of jobs for working class folks throughout the city and region.

[Theophrastus Bombastus]

more stellar news...

why is it that whenever the courant mentions some company working on a project and i go to their website, that project is never listed....

http://www.courant.c...,0,551935.story

The new owners of the old Clarion on the plaza are planning to convert the former hotel into as many as 200 apartments, mostly studios and one-bedroom units. Developer Girona Ventures and Wonder Works Construction and Development Corp. are working out financing, city officials say, including seeking mortgage insurance from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

http://www.gironaventures.com/
http://www.wonderworkscorp.com/

[MadVlad]

That would be a great boost for that area, i wish they would get more damned housing in that area (Maybe AI Engineers should look into that aspect)...

[The Voice of Reason]

I think AI should go mixed use as well, it would have a much better chance of getting financing that way.  

I really want to see the plaza apartments get started though, because its a big project and i almost fear that its size might scare other developers away from planing projects of their own because downtown is still very wait and see.  its now Q1 2012, so lets hope to see the demo start in the next 90 days

[disegnourbano]

On Sunday, on Meet the State, Governor Malloy called for 3,000-4,000 new housing units in downtown Hartford. And today, he announced the formation of the CRDA, which will coordinate state and city efforts in Hartford's redevelopment. Both are good news for the iQuilt, http://theiquiltplan.org, which was cited in the Governor's press release and in news articles in the Courant and Hartford Business Journal.

Here's a link to the just-released i"Pocket Guide" to the iQuilt Plan (right click to save to disk): http://iq2.squarespa...0Jan%202012.pdf

The full 120-page Overview is supposed to be online on January 24.

There has been a lot of news coverage of the iQuilt recently:
http://theiquiltplan.org/news/

The Plan is also relevant to other Urban Planet discussions on downtown Hartford, including proposed renovations of the XL Center, and the State of Connecticut possibly relocating many of its office into downtown commercial space, and freeing up its holdings, especially around Bushnell Park, for housing.

Edited by disegnourbano, 19 January 2012 - 07:21 PM.

[The Voice of Reason]

http://www.hartfordb.../news22611.html

HBJ with an update on a bunch of rehab potentials.  no mention of the recent 8 apartments t colt, the new townhomes at capewell, the 5 or so new apts at 55 on main and the 5 or so at 915 main, of 50 elm st, or 36 lewis street


buuuttt

all we really have is hollander 2 and the clarion.  so 239 total apts by 2014

We may also get something at front street, but just the 115 that are financially supported by 8 million in subsidies.  located at the parking lot next to the elks.   would be cool though, even though it likely would be just 4-5 floors?

the 101-111 pearl street are in play possibly as well, but its too early to tell how the city and state want to proceed.  between the two, there is room for 100-200 apartments depending on how big they would be.



grunberg is sounding scummy about 777 main.  "help me with the asbestos, or ill leave it vacant... also wants state to buy it.

just weird the dude bought it like 3 ears ago and now is acting like he is doing the city a favor by owning it and he needs the state to buy it, or pa for asbestos removal or something.   totally weird, and i think scummy

[Chessplayer]

Looks like nothing is happening without some sort of government help. That's all right if the developer is acting on a defined plan, is competent enough to execute, and downtown is clearly made better by the project. I'd classify the Capital Center, the Clarion, 101-111 Pearl, and even Front Street as worthy investments.

VoR I'm in total agreement about Michael Grunberg, owner of the BofA building. Public help for his asbestos mediation...so...he can go poach a client from another downtown building? No way.

[The Voice of Reason]

Holy crap Pedro!

lets add 1 more project to the accepting money, but worth list...

Colt South Armory!

Apparently Pedro is asking for 5.3 million to finish off the S armory.
so, thats building an additional 79 apartments so that the owner can use the S Armory as collateral in order to borrow funds to fix up the East Armory!!!

The article also mentions a new least of 16000 SF at the S Armory bringing 100 jobs to the area (from elsewhere in the state) and adding another 50 in the near future.

so this new owner so far came out of pocket to build 8 new units, signed a magnate school and is bringing 100 jobs to hartford....  so the city is rewarding him with a 5.3 million bond to add 79 more apartments and build out the office space planned on the bottom 2 floors.
The total cost to redevelop the South Armory is about $30 million.  So, 5.3 million is paying about 18% of the development cost.

but also, the state is going to fix the roof of the E Armory for 1 million.  this 6.3 million could end up getting the whole project finished and adding another 200+ apartments.  and a national park


http://courantblogs....r-colt-factory/


I am psyched about this.   more than if it were to fix up some random building to add 79 apartments.   this is the colt building!  and the fact that it will be a good thing at 129 apartments, 2 schools, and some offices is, well, good.   the fact that it might lead to great things, makes this, well, great!

[The Voice of Reason]

http://www.courant.c...0,2161653.story

Another article that covers the residential boom, but more about the burbs.  just mentions the apartments on the plaza in hartford, but highlights like 8 other projects.

[The Voice of Reason]

I'm gonna try and update this list.

Downtown CORE Housing Stock -1910 units
55 on the park: 132 apartments
Trumbull on the park: 100 apartments
Hartford-21 262 apartments
Sage-Allen 78 apartments +170 student housing
The Metropolitan 50 condos
American Airlines 101 Apartments
410 Asylum 14 market rate, 56 affordable Apartments
Union place-  69 Apartments
Pratt street- 6 Apartments
Artspace- 46 Apartments
Bushnell Tower- 176 Condos
Bushnell on the park- 174 Condos and Apartments
Capitalview 270 Apartments
487 Main Street-   4 luxury condominiums

Downtown CORE Hotels -1825 Rooms
Hotel Bond (Homewood Suits) 117 hotel suits
Holiday Inn downtown 96 Rooms
Hilton Downtown-393 Rooms
Crown Plaza -350 Rooms
Convention Center Mariott-409
Mariott Suites -124


Downtown FRINGE Housing Stock - units
Colt 50 apartments currently open
N. Main Apts. 57 low income apartments
1429 Park Street/Design Center Hartford 56 Loft style Apartment lofts
160 dorms for the culinary institute in Asylum hill.
The linden

Downtown FRINGE Hotels - Rooms
Hampton Inn East Hartford -121 Rooms
Sheraton - East Hartford -215 Rooms

Current plans.....
Constitution Plaza Apartments 199 units
370 Asylum Street apartments ~70 Units
110 Wyllis   16 town homes  under construction.
777 main  286 apartments -at planning dept
Colt Armory S Arsenal completion with city help  79 units
36 Louis St (10Ksf mixed use)
50 elm 2-3 apartments above resturant


Recent rumors:
Colt Armory E Armory 200 units?  
Front Street Phase 2   115 apartments next to the Elks club
Clinton St High-rise condos

Other Prospects
101 Pearl
111 Pearl

[The Voice of Reason]

I am sure it’s pretty obvious that I am all kinds of excited about all of thing things happening these days around Hartford (remembering that I tend to ignore the bad news)

When it comes to downtown housing developments, I did my best to update my previous efforts below but also added commentary.

We seem to have 16 townhomes and 620 apartments in the immediate pipeline and others certainly waiting in the wings.  Out of that, an impressive 539 apartments are planned in the true downtown core!
This is a 28% increase in housing stock bringing our total up to 2451!

While nothing is guaranteed, I think we all have to be pretty excited about seeing our downtown grow by 28%  and all of it coming from either converting empty offices or developing a surface lot on Front Street.  So there is absolutely nothing that needs displacing for these plans to happen, not even 1 retail store!  Remembering how the feel of downtown changed when 915 Main Street opened has me extremely excited for 777 Main.  If this comes to pass we would have a building with almost 3 times as many units opening.  The visual impact could be huge for downtown.  This one project represents a 15% increase in inventory while 915 was only a 6% increase at the time it opened.

The downtown Fringe also does pretty well if everything comes to pass, especially the rumors section!
While Charter Oak, Asylum Hill and the Capital area are generally not considered part of downtown, the edges closest to downtown feed the activity there a great deal.  The Linden, Capital View Apartments, Colt Armory, and others are filled with people that walk into downtown for dinner and entertainment nightly, and likely also work downtown.  As apartments fill in at Colt, and the Townhomes near Capewell, the vibrancy of downtown will only improve.  The potential condos near the Bushnell might have the greatest effect on these fringe areas as the park begins to be ringed with housing and therefore energy.  In fact the city calls the capital area downtown, but I know it sure does not feel that way right now.

What is also very interesting about these coming potential projects is that we will be improving our office vacancy as well.  If we include 101-111 Pearl, it’s quite impressive.
777 Main is 305,000SF, 101-111 Pearl is 170,000SF, The Clarion Hotel is 200,000SF, 370 Asylum St is 70,000SF and The Colt Armory is a few hundred thousand SF.

That is 545,000SF of downtown Office space being converted to residential and occupied, as well as reactivating a vacant Hotel.   If the State buys and fills CT River Plaza, within a year or two our vacant office space might go down by as much 1.1 Million SF.  This would put our market closer to 10% vacant.  FAR better than the near 30% we are at now.  This figure is also closer to the healthy level.


Current core development plans.....
Constitution Plaza Apartments: 199 Apartments
370 Asylum Street Apartments: ~40 Apartments
777 Main Street Apartments: 286 apartments -at planning dept
55 on the park is adding 5 new units in former common areas
915 Main Street is adding 9 new units in former common areas

Current development plans on the downtown fringe.....
Colt Armory S Arsenal: To be completed with city help, 79 units bond approved
110 Wyllis Street 16 town homes -under construction.
50 Elm Street 2-3 apartments above a restaurant

Total development currently approved, underway or proceeding through planning:
16 townhomes, 620 Apartments

Recent rumors:
546 Downtown apartment units are rumored including AI Tech center
236 Fringe apartments are rumored as well as a “high-rise condo” with an unknown number of units (assuming at least 150 units or it wouldn’t be a high-rise).

36 Louis St this 10Ksf building was recently bought with plans to turn into apartments or office space with retail?  But most likely several apartments (6) plus a restaurant

Colt Armory, East Arsenal 236 units?
-This rumor came up when the city put together a 5.3 million dollar bond and the state a 1 million dollar bond to finish the South Arsenal and to replace the Roof on the East Arsenal.  Once completed the developer intends to use the S Arsenal as collateral to a bank to fund the E Arsenals renovation.  I used 236 as this was the number used years ago.

Front Street Phase II 115 apartments next to the Elks club
-This rumor came up in a HBJ article about apartment opportunities in the city.  In a conversation with Nitkin, the owner indicated his intent to build a new building next to the Elks lodge that included 115 apartments and 25000SF of retail. He was seeking financing, but Front Street has a pretty massive amount of city state and federal money allocated for housing already, so this should not be a huge obstacle

10 Clinton St “High-rise condos”
-This rumor popped up in an interview with the head of the Bushnell which has had improving finances of late and now their intention is to push into the community and get more involved including some development.  In the article he mentioned the state lab that is being replaced.  It will be torn down and the state will sell it to them.  They have subsequently had conversations with developers about building a high-rise condo.  No word on timing height, the developers name, number of units or really anything.  But it didn’t sound like idle chatter.

101 Pearl and 111 Pearl
RFP has been posted to turn 175000SF of office space into “anything” however 225 apartments was mentioned by David Pantagore.  They are also looking to package Trumbull on the Park with these two buildings to give the buyer positive cash flow.
These two buildings are city and state owned and have each had several attempts at development.  There have been RFP several times with bidders announced even.  Sadly both are still vacant.  

AI Tech center is now rumored to include 200 apartments or some kind of residential aspect.  This has not been confirmed by AI but was reported in the HBJ.


Existing housing stock downtown

Downtown CORE Housing Stock -1910 units
55 on the park: 132 apartments
Trumbull on the park: 100 apartments
Hartford-21 262 apartments
Sage-Allen 78 apartments +170 student housing
The Metropolitan 50 condos
915 Main Street 101 Apartments
410 Asylum 14 market rate, 56 affordable Apartments
Union place- 69 Apartments
Pratt street- 6 Apartments
Art space- 46 Apartments
Bushnell Tower- 176 Condos
Bushnell on the park- 174 Condos and Apartments
Capital view 270 Apartments
487 Main Street- 4 luxury condominiums

Downtown CORE Hotels -1825 Rooms
Hotel Bond (Homewood Suits) 117 hotel suits
Holiday Inn downtown 96 Rooms
Hilton Downtown-393 Rooms
Crown Plaza -350 Rooms
Convention Center Mariott-409
Mariott Suites -124

Downtown FRINGE Housing Stock - 323units+
Colt 50 apartments currently open
N. Main Apts. 57 low income apartments
1429 Park Street/Design Center Hartford 56 Loft style Apartment lofts
160 dorms for the culinary institute in Asylum hill.
The linden
Townhomes at the Linden
S Main St Apartments

Downtown FRINGE Hotels – 336 Rooms
Hampton Inn East Hartford -121 Rooms
Sheraton - East Hartford -215 Rooms

Edited by The Voice of Reason, 11 April 2012 - 10:59 AM.

[beerbeer]

What would you consider 250 Main and Adrian's Tower? They are a lot closer to the Old State House (or XL Center, pick your ground zero) than the Colt Apartments.

Edited by beerbeer, 23 April 2012 - 02:09 PM.

[The Voice of Reason]

beerbeer, on 23 April 2012 - 02:09 PM, said:

What would you consider 250 Main and Adrian's Tower? They are a lot closer to the Old State House (or XL Center, pick your ground zero) than the Colt Apartments.

I refer to them as Fringe.  When I wrote S. Main Street Apartments, I was refering to 250 and 360 main street.   I need to update that at some point.   Do you know how many units are in each of them?  I think H Tycoon used to live in 250 Main, but I suppose it might have been you   I totally forget.

360 Main = Adrians tower BTW

Also, I am sure there is housing in one of those buildings across from 250 near The Hook and ladder, but at some point this is really just neighborhood housing, and it contributes to downtown vibrancy in a limited capacity.  therefore Fringe.
Hell, Colt is part of Charter Oak, and I think if the origonal Plaza Mayor ever happened It would have been the anchor for Barry square.

In reality each of these buildings are different from say Sheldon charter oak housing and have a differnt impact on the improvement of the downtown streetscape and feel.
That being said, we follow pretty much everything on here right?  so thats why I have at times listed that building on the Wethersfield border and 980 Wethersfield ave I think it was.

I am no expert by any means, and Hartford is completely unique, so really, we have downtown, and outside of downtown right?

Edited by The Voice of Reason, 23 April 2012 - 02:44 PM.

[HartfordTycoon]

The Voice of Reason, on 23 April 2012 - 02:32 PM, said:

I refer to them as Fringe.  When I wrote S. Main Street Apartments, I was refering to 250 and 360 main street.   I need to update that at some point.   Do you know how many units are in each of them?  I think H Tycoon used to live in 250 Main, but I suppose it might have been you   I totally forget.

360 Main = Adrians tower BTW

Also, I am sure there is housing in one of those buildings across from 250 near The Hook and ladder, but at some point this is really just neighborhood housing, and it contributes to downtown vibrancy in a limited capacity.  therefore Fringe.
Hell, Colt is part of Charter Oak, and I think if the origonal Plaza Mayor ever happened It would have been the anchor for Barry square.

In reality each of these buildings are different from say Sheldon charter oak housing and have a differnt impact on the improvement of the downtown streetscape and feel.
That being said, we follow pretty much everything on here right?  so thats why I have at times listed that building on the Wethersfield border and 980 Wethersfield ave I think it was.

I am no expert by any means, and Hartford is completely unique, so really, we have downtown, and outside of downtown right?

It was me that used to live in 250. I agree that it is on the fringe of Dowtown but I would consider it more a part of downtown than part of the Barry Square/Park Street Neighborhood. It's more connected to Downtown and many of the people living there work downtown. If someone walked out of the front door at 250 main for a walk I would say that 9 times out of 10 they were headed somewhere Downtown as to opposed to say taking a stroll down Park St.

[beerbeer]

250 Main has 214 units

360 Main has 62 units.

[The Voice of Reason]

Main Street South of Bushnell towers really has a great residential density!  It has been the anchor of downtown living in Hartford for 20 years!

Take those two buildings and add in the Linden and the nearbye townhomes, Bushnell towers and the lowrise on the park, and you have pretty much all of Hartfords "downtown" apartments since the 70's

The recent addition of the 4 condos across from city hall, and 50 Elm Streeet being fixed up show that the area still holds high honors amongst potential investors (small ones anyways)  The capewell townhomes might add additional life, as would the condos by the bushnell, but I think that before long we will hear of some major project in this area.  Be it at Plaza Mayor or another location.

I suspect that the enire corridore from barry square to downtown will only increase in attractiveness as more life is breathed into downtown and its fringe areas.


I made another map of downtown much like the one I did years ago.  While this one was fueled by boredom while traveling for work it paints a great visual of where we are and where we are going.

as of today we have 2 primary residential clusters (remember I include hotels)
1st is the area surrounding City Steam.
we have Sage Allen, The Mariott, 915 Main Street, the student housing behind Sage Allen, and a few apartments on Pratt.  This area is heavily fed by the Crown Plaza hotel as well as when they walk to downtown this is where they go as evidenced by hundreds of conversations I have had at citysteam.

The other primary cluster is based around Salute.  Over here you have The Bushnell towers, Trumbull on the park, and 55 on the park.

lastly we have the Black Eyed Sallys cluster that includes 410 Asylum, the Holiday Inn, Hotel Bond, and has some interaction with Union Place, Capital view Apartments, real art ways etc...

None of these clusters are particularily strong and i think thats why downtown is alive but not Vibrent in any single place.

The newest proposals really do an amazing job filling in holes!  Its just amazing on the map by my estimation.
The Clarion Hotel is an outlier but would likely most directly feed the citysteam cluster.  While not extremely transformative, this project seems to be the most likely to happen.

The Pear street buildings would add greatly to the Salute cluster while better connecting to Hartford 21.
The 777 Main Street project would go a LONG way at connecting The City Steam Cluster and the Salute cluster.

Hollander II will add a little further strength to Sallys cluster, but slow and steady wins the race.

all of the other projects would ultimately just act as feeders for these downtown clusters but would also each breath some life into areas currently quite dead at night on on weekends (front stret, the plaza, the capital area)  If we are lucky enough to get 777 Main, Clarion, Pearl St and Hollander 2 built we may just see some honest to goodness vibrancy downtown!

[beerbeer]

What map?