Retail at Front Street? Does that really make sense?

This is seven million dollars that the project lost because of foot dragging. It isn't new money, it just restoring the money they lost.

Something I have always liked about the mayor is his eye for more. he may not be the best mayor but he at least wants everything to be big in hartford. NHL Arena, 30+ story towers, larger front street with large residential component

"Perez said he hoped, though, that planning for the housing would start in the next few months.

"If we need to change the size of the units and make them more worker housing instead of empty nesters," that would be OK, Perez said. But the development can't stop with retail alone, he said.

"I want the home run," Perez said. "But getting to second base is OK"

http://www.courant.com/community/news/hfd/...0,5924967.story

FALL start date??? Why? They've had YEARS to do the prep work, just start the !@#$% thing already.

Yeah, I read that article and it seems as if the housing component is not even mentioned any longer. I guess at this point I just hope it somehow doesn't completely suck if it's ever built. I have definitely lost all excitement about it.

http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews...,0,945432.story
HUD Awards Grant, Loan For Adriaen's Landing Project
WASHINGTON - The Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced a $2 million grant and a $5 million loan for the Adriaen's Landing project in Hartford. It will go to the problem-plagued Front Street component, the final retail and recreational component to the river-front project.

my inner core says fudge THIS handicapped non project and may it never be built.;

but its still good for Hartford to get something from the government

There was a steak house, Chuck's, on the corner of Asylum and Trumbull for years. It did great. Putting another steak house somewhere near that corner is very low risk, it's a no brainer.

I was always under the impression that it was known as Portland Jetport.

I drove past the Science Center this morning and it looks like the crane is finally moving on the "magic carpet" - rumor has it that there is an additional 40,000 lbs of steel going up (another source reported 40 tons - 80,000 lbs - I don't know which report is right so I went conservative).

Northland has something in the works for retail at Hartford 21. You guys will be blown away if it comes to fruition.

http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews...0,5659616.story

so there is a new boss in town.

not sure if this guy ran portland international in OR or if he ran the one in ME

This is a great announcement in line with the other projects currently underway at the airport. Hartford just may have a great airport one day! I will love it when visitors can finally stop complaining about Bradley.

2 more things. I like that you renames this 484! Also, would this cut off the rail line?

I agree that exit is a nightmare that takes up much too much land. I would love to see the exit completely removed.

The Sisson Avenue exit (I-84 exit 46) is a three tier interchange with long ramps simply leading to West Boulevard. It was designed to accomodate a freeway that would follow the north branch of the Park River to Bloomfield. Exits 43, 45, and 48 were also contructed as interchanges for never built highways, giving I-84 its multi-tier profile.

I thought I'd post an idea that I recently shared with "Hub of Hartford".

The Casinos wanted to rebuild the Midland with their funds. They were going to build the cars in New London (getting the bodies from Colorado Railcars) they were going to employ about 100 people on this project.

This would need to follow Rt 2 out of Hartford.

Using Bills idea a multimodal transport center at the Rent or MCC then an entire new rail line would need to be built along Rt 2 to the Casinos. I am not so sure the Casinos would pay for this. it seems like it would be extremely expensive to build this much track. I agree It would add a huge ridership, but the public tends to bank at such things.

I'm not going to comment on most of this since I've talked myself to death on most of these issues already. What I will comment on is the addition of a direct link to the casinos. I always thought that was a huge oversight by both the State and the Tribal Nations. Having a shuttle or direct link from Bradley would be in everyones best intest.

When I was looking at the unit the agent just said the units were "going fast." I they were saying that a lot of them would be ready for move in on May 1st. I agree that it'll probably be some time before people start moving in.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...mp;t=h&z=17
you can see the location from this google map.

http://www.hartford.gov/Development/planni...08%20agenda.pdf
this is the item on the zoning board of appeals.

and this is from the YMCA web site under capitol programs
http://ghymca.org/wsc_content/download/FloorPlan_40b52.pdf


North Hartford YMCA Family and Community Center:

</H2>In many North Hartford neighborhoods, more than half the households live at or below the poverty line. Children under 18 make up slightly more than 30% of the population. Two-thirds of neighborhood adults lack a high school diploma or have not finished 8th grade. Even more disturbing, many of Hartford’s neighborhoods have been plagued by gun violence- underscoring the urgent need for a safe haven.

<H2>
The YMCA is planning to build a North Hartford YMCA Family and Community Center on Albany Avenue and Brook Streets. The new YMCA will offer life-changing experiences that will serve 4-6,000 additional people the first year alone. Moms and Dads will be able to take parenting skills classes-courses that nearly 80% of the neighborhoods’ parents said were needed to become a better parent. Children, families, older adults and people of all ages will have the opportunity to spend more time with one another in numerous programs and positive activities that help them grow closer, safer, and develop self esteem and leadership skills. The YMCA is collaborating with the Urban League of Greater Hartford and Community Health Services to provide one-stop human services and activities for North Hartford neighborhoods.

Yeah, it is a charming place. Right next to the Mill there is one of the older homes in town, if memory serves me right it dates to 1728 or so. Behind the Mill and the house is a decent sized pond. The whole area looks really nice in springtime as there are a lot of colorful trees and such there. They only real drawback is that Hebron Ave. and Salmon Brook business park are nearby which add a sprawl element. Downtown is probably a bit too far to walk for most residents too.

Sounds like a neat place.

I would suspect the bridge would remain if it is a short bridge. it would be a natural way to keep people driving slowly around the buildings. Besides little things like this add to the charm of living in an old mill building.

The work you see them doing seems to be the demo mentioned in the article.

Not much to add other than that I live very close to this project and when I drove by the other day work was ongoing. I'm interested to see what happens there as the mill is a pretty unique site. Addison village itself is tiny, just a few old mills and a street or two of old homes on either side of the stream. One of the interesting things is that the stream runs directly under the factory. I wonder how they will handle that? Also, where Addison Street goes over the stream right in front of the factory the bridge is so narrow that I'm not even sure that two cars can go over it at the same time. With people living there I wonder if the bridge will be upgraded?

http://www.courant.com/business/realestate...0,6230891.story

The Addison Mill Apartment project has secured $8.3 million in construction financing from Commerce Bank & Trust in Worcester. The financing was arranged by CBRE/Melody in Hartford.

Developer Martin J. Kenny plans 55 apartments in the mill building — the oldest section dating from the 1820s — and now hopes to complete the project by May 2009. Demolition of some sections of the mill that are too run-down to use began in late February.


It looks like this project will be a go from here.

the developer put 1M in he just got 8.3M in financing, and the project totals about 12M so it seems another historis mill will be put to good use.