[The Voice of Reason]

according to the tour I went on they were waiting on Certificates of Occupancy from the city. this can take a little wile some times, but you can be sure that it will be leasing up as the fall progresses into winter.

[Luca Brasi]

LOV, on Sep 24 2009, 11:18 AM, said:

HT was open at 9PM yesterday, i guess it doesn't say much, but they're open so far.

i'd take it with a grain of salt that a staff at one restaurant is going to boycott their employee and open a venue on their own elsewhere. i know nothing about restaurant business but i imagine it doesn't run cheap, i just can't imagine a bunch of waiters all of a sudden getting approved to be owners.

Like I said... Hot Tomatoes is staying put. Its not a bunch of waiters but a very popular GM and head chef. These guys have built up quite a client list and following over the last 15 years and have the financial backing and loyalty of wait and barstaff. In the restaurant industry, thats huge. I have heard the new place will be called "Salute" and will be yet another Italian restaurant downtown. Look for a December opening.

[The Voice of Reason]

Luca Brasi, on Sep 24 2009, 03:31 PM, said:

Like I said... Hot Tomatoes is staying put. Its not a bunch of waiters but a very popular GM and head chef. These guys have built up quite a client list and following over the last 15 years and have the financial backing and loyalty of wait and barstaff. In the restaurant industry, thats huge. I have heard the new place will be called "Salute" and will be yet another Italian restaurant downtown. Look for a December opening.

cool, good to hear.

I have to say for a city with a reasonably large itallian population, and having one an itallian quarter, it has no real continuity in regards to an itallian presence on the streets regarding retail.

little italy is all sorts of broken, and so there is no real place to go to get the concentration of itallian eateries this city should have.

We could use some good southern itallian places

[jcrc]

Rumor has it Northland is about to sign two tenants, one at the corner of trumbull and asylum, the glass corner of H21, and one on trumbull side of xl center. The bad news is these are not retail shops, they are banks. Also, rumor has it Northland is now thinking of doing the grocery store themselves.

Rumor has it Northland is about to sign two tenants, one at the corner of trumbull and asylum, the glass corner of H21, and one on trumbull side of xl center. The bad news is these are not retail shops, they are banks. Also, rumor has it Northland is now thinking of doing the grocery store themselves.

[MichaelQReilly]

jcrc, on Oct 9 2009, 01:23 PM, said:

Rumor has it Northland is about to sign two tenants, one at the corner of trumbull and asylum, the glass corner of H21, and one on trumbull side of xl center. The bad news is these are not retail shops, they are banks. Also, rumor has it Northland is now thinking of doing the grocery store themselves.

Rumor has it Northland is about to sign two tenants, one at the corner of trumbull and asylum, the glass corner of H21, and one on trumbull side of xl center. The bad news is these are not retail shops, they are banks. Also, rumor has it Northland is now thinking of doing the grocery store themselves.

Anything is better than empty space. At this point, nobody is going to pay a huge premium for Northland's space when there are plenty of other vacant storefronts in the city. Banks aren't ideal, but they still generate foot traffic and keep occupancy rates up.

[The Voice of Reason]

I have written this in another thread, I think it was your thread about little things to improve downtown.

But there are several banks, regional banks that do not have a presence downtown, and once they do, there will be a decent increase in street traffic.

hell walking to the bank on main street is a time honored tradition.

one of my tenants who lives in Frog Hollow comes to the closest (state house square) wachova branch to get me rent money. I then used to walk over to the closest TD bank (280 Trumbull) branch.

while out on these errands I am sure we both occasionally buy a beverage a snack, or add in another chore along the way. The more services there are, the better off this city will be.

I have said that Rockville needs a branch as does Farmington Bank, and Liberty bank.

I would bet money that one of the 2 banks is Farmington bank since they are adding 6 branches to their network in the near term and are venturing east of Avon mountain including Glastonbury. so a downtown branch is a no brainer and I can see S windsor in their future as well

Liberty recently opened a branch in Wethersfield, so Hartford would not suprise me. If that happens I am dumping TD, I have wanted to support a CT bank for a while, there just was not a convenient branch to a bank I liked.

Rockville is just getting to the point where a Hartford branch makes sense, so it could be them too
http://www.rockville...sp/location.asp

as a betting man, I would assume Farmington and Rockville.

Liberty would likely have to open a few in the area before downtown makes complete sense. Sort of the same way that Farmington is opening a bunch of branches.
http://www.liberty-b...ons/default.asp

all in all, its good stuff if its true.

I hope the grocery thing is true too.
with 410 Asylum coming online, there will be another 150 or so downtown residents soon, and if the woman from 410 achieves her goals for filling that retail space, this will be a much more interesting city to live in. wtih a grocery store, the additional banks, and service businesses in 410, living in the city will be well worth it. the only problem will be a shortage of housing options.

[jcrc]

I am not as optimistic as you guys are. To me, Northland has failed as a real estate developer when it comes to marketing their retail spaces. We all know Hartford needs unique retail shops to attract weekend visitors from suburbs and essential retail shops for downtown residents. If the rumor is true, adding 2 more bank branches do nothing other than filling vacant spots. By the way, did Northland ditch its silly must open on weekend requirement for these banks? As far as running their own grocery store, let's hope they are better grocer than hotelier. If they are to run their own grocery store it is a realization on their part that even with no up front build out investment, no one else would do it.

[blackstone]

i heard from a tenant at 55 that dolce is moving to main street.

[The Voice of Reason]

I just realized that there is no New Alliance branch downtown either is there?
They have just 1 in Parkville.

So I am guessing it will be new alliance and Farmington bank.

And jrcr, while you are definately right about some of Northlands failings, he is sticking to his guns because he believes in a city open on Saturday. I love that this is something they are willing to put their money behind. They could have made easy decisions that further supported the office park mentality, but instead they stuck to their guns.

who knows.

anyways I think that if in fact these 2 banks come in here, the traffic that they will bring from office workers that normally do not leave their cubes to do their banking will make the spaces near by them more attractive to potential small businesspeople. I know if I were looking to open say a resturant I would not be leasing the space along the XL center frontage because there is nothing there, but if I were between to banks, it would be at least much less barren.

I feel like baby steps are the best steps right now.

Another observation I made this weekend

Salute is definately moving into the Dolce space. its got a sign saying coming winter 2010.
see


and really, Dolce moving to Main street?
that sounds a little unlikely, it had to cost a bundle to build out that space only to fold a short time later. location was likely not an issue, and any rent savings would be far less that the new build out costs.

that being said, it woulc be cool to keep dulce and gain Salute

[grock]

I noticed Front Street sweets closed in West Hartford Center. Are they moving to Front Street?

[Luca Brasi]

blackstone, on Oct 10 2009, 10:41 PM, said:

i heard from a tenant at 55 that dolce is moving to main street.

I have heard the same thing.

[The Voice of Reason]

would it be somewhere in 901 Main street?

if so, that part of down is truely becoming the place to be!

i will have to ask nyberg on thursday

[The Voice of Reason]

So, Its noticable now that The city has put a conciderable effort into adding signage. I recall reading somewhere that there was a program assisting in this, and over the last year a bunch more signage has popped up downtown.

Most recently I noticed that On20, the fancy restaurant on the 20th floor of the HSB building has a sign at street level.
with all the additions, I think the city is much more user friendly, and appears more pedestrian friendly as a result.



on a semi related note, I love the big hole where WFSB used to be. it makes that Hotel so much more tempting to redevelop, and the plaza lights look great from colombus. the city is all twinkly

[Theophrastus Bombastus]

Wow, dead board lately



Did Sauce in Glastonbury close?

Boy, I hope there will be a good (non-chain) Italian restaurant in Front St.

This post has been edited by Theophrastus Bombastus: 06 January 2010 - 01:37 PM

[jcrc]

Is there any truth to the rumor that McDonald's closed because Northland wanted to jack up its rent?

[MadVlad]

I know it closed, but no idea why....

[JHChris280]

jcrc, on 13 January 2010 - 12:45 PM, said:

Is there any truth to the rumor that McDonald's closed because Northland wanted to jack up its rent?

According to the HBJ the owner declined to renew the lease but gave no indication as to why. Downtown Hartford may be a challenging retail/restaurant environment but I find it highly unlikely McDonald's can't cut it, even if that particular restaurant looked like it was caught in a late 80's/early 90's time warp. Purely conjecture on my part but I would not be surprised to see another McDonald's in Downtown Hartford (non-Northland) in the next few years.

[The Voice of Reason]

JHChris280, on 13 January 2010 - 02:36 PM, said:

According to the HBJ the owner declined to renew the lease but gave no indication as to why. Downtown Hartford may be a challenging retail/restaurant environment but I find it highly unlikely McDonald's can't cut it, even if that particular restaurant looked like it was caught in a late 80's/early 90's time warp. Purely conjecture on my part but I would not be surprised to see another McDonald's in Downtown Hartford (non-Northland) in the next few years.

The loaction they are leaving was honestly pretty damn crappy.

I have no doubt a new one will open, and honestly, H-21 would likely be the best place for it. but if Northland is the problem as you guys suspect, there are still a bunch of highly visable corner locations centrally located. Heckm even State House Square food court is a possibilty