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Interesting sign downtown


Luca Brasi

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As I drove down Asylum St, I noticed that the lot on the corner of Ann and Asylum now has a large sign with a picture of a skyscraper that reads "Downtown Hartford development zone. Will build up to 1,000,000 square ft." or something to that effect

Anyone else see this?

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I think that one is owned by the Bond Hotel people.  and 1000000SF would be extremely tall on that block.  whomever would want that would need to really want that :)   and would be lacking parking.

 

not happening though...

 

anyways, the church owns what was once proposed as a skyscraper Metro center II

I cant get on the assessor site though while at work to confirm.

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I thought is was strange in that this has been a surface lot forever and out of the blue, the owners are looking to develop it. It makes me wonder if the city is providing some kind of incentive ... Especially with the verbiage "Downttown Hartford Development Zone." Anything would be better than a parking lot...

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there is a Downtown Hartford Development Zone that was established i think by the state. 

 

I also think the once city one plan thing has some consideration for lots like this downtown. 

 

combine that with a seemingly recovering property market in Hartford as well as lessening office vacancies (even though most of that is driven by the state)

 

and add in a bunch of office conversion to apartments and well, why not throw a sign out there right?

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http://courantblogs.com/ct-real-estate/a-sign-of-bold-ideas-on-one-downtown-hartford-corner/

 

Thanks to Ken for hussling out to the corner to snap a pic.

 

the owner invisions 800 apartments in a 1000000 SF tower with national retailers in the retail spaces.

 

that would be pretty big for hartford... It would also cost over 200 million

 

http://courantblogs.com/ct-real-estate/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/krakshouri1.jpg

 

 

krakshouri1.jpg

 

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If nothing else, the guy is thinking big and is passionate. A building HALF the size he is talking about would be a coup. At least he is talking with the city.. who knows what kind of connections this guy has in real estate...?

One of the better things I took from the article was his idea for the Homewood Suites. If you ever saw the original lobby, you would be impressed. That and the fact that the large arched windows that open out to Asylum have been cemented over makes you wonder who was making these decisions.

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I was talking to my wife about this last night and I think we both agreed that the lot for sale is Icing... The cake is the old hotel getting another facelift with its historic charm daylighted again.  historic buildings like the Bond need to be the show pieces thay are.  We probably destroyed our best buildings, but the ones we have left need to be revered.. historically concious rennovation is one way to achieve that.

 

 

Luca, the building in the picture is 42 stories... I fully agree that a building half that size would be a coup for this location.  400 apartments would be a big number for Hartford too!  they would surely be small NYC sized places to fit on that footprint, and there would not be much parking on a .66 acre lot... (incidently the same size as my property)  

 

I would love to see more pedestrian dependent buildings built in Hartfords downtown. 

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One million square feet on a footprint this size would be Hartford's tallest building by a long shot... I'm guessing +700 ft . City Place if I remember is around 800,000.

Since we are all speculating, why not have the city build a large city garage on the Homewood Suites lot that this guy owns? The city is selling the garage it owns on Morgan. Then you would have parking for both the proposed apartment building AND the proposed location for UConn on Allyn St. It kills two birds with one stone.

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it made the HBJ as well.

 

Luca, 1000000SF does not mean it will be taller.  Residential buildings are shorter between floors than office buildings.  

 

at say 10 feet per floor vs 14 for commercial, you differ by 168 feet over 42 floors.  anyways.. that also assumes like 23800 SF per floor.

 

43560 SF per acre so at .66 acres its conceivable to build a 28250 Square foot per floor pedestal and well there are setbacks, so ya never know.

 

all in the spirit for speculation.

 

say a maximum of 400 spaces under ground? 

Im cool with that. 

 

but a big parking lot behind Bond might not be a win.  Id rather almost see a building on each lot with parking totaling 800 rooms.  just a thought.

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City Place is 820,000 square feet and stands 535 feet tall, give or take a couple of feet. City Place is 38 stories tall

 

The pictured building is 42 floors. As apartment building floors tend to be less high than office building floors, I would suspect that the pictured building is over 500 feeet but not over 600.

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Hmmmm.. The article mentions that 800 apartments would have three times the amount of Hartford 21. And while i am aware of the difference in commercial vs. residential floor heights, Hartford 21 is 440 ft. tall. Park Place Towers at 260 ft. each have 220 units. If you stacked the towers you would have about 500 ft. with 440 apartments... and those units are small. I'm assuming the footprint would be larger at the proposed site and there are many other variables, but the building lot isn't that big at all. Regardless, it would be a VERY tall building that would figure prominently in Hartford's skyline.

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absolutely!

 

there is no way to put 800 units on that lot without height and small units... and a variance for less parking.

 

I have to agree with the land owner that it would be a catalyst. 

 

again, since its all speculation, lets look at 360 state street in New haven built by Becker.... next to what we know about this lot

 

360 State

500 units,

32 stories

300 feet tall and 

700,000SF 

Built on a 65,000 SF building lot.

500 garage parking spaces

cost 180 Million

 

 

Ann/Asylum

800 Units

42 stories

(lets say at least 400 feet tall)

1,000,000SF

to be built on 28250 SF lot

Cost 200 Million

 

 

Since 360 State is a recent building and the closest comp in CT, its a great compare.  First off, 1 million SF, 42 Floors 800 units and 400ft all seem pretty accurate when scaled up.

 

the big questions come when we see the cost and the parking spaces and the building lot.

first off this building would either need underground parking on a lot this size (and thats costly) and likely would not be 800 spaces under any arrangement on such a small lot.  I suppose an 800 unit building would absolutely need a parking garage on the Hotel lot that served the hotel and the apartment with some kind of connecting hallway behind the hotel.

Cost for a building like that would also surely be more than 200million if state street cost 180 million.

 

lastly to attract a Gap or whatever was mentioned, there would need to be retail space, and a parking ramp and a lobby would make the retail space fairly small.  this further makes me believe that any parking would need to be on Allyn Street as Luca had menioned.

 

again... 100% speculation :)

 

think im gonna google this guy now :)

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Interesting google session

 

Paul Khakshouri

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/my_own_cousin_ripped_me_off_ZLPhU9DyHamPYPoOPax9PN

 

also interesting is that this family is CONNECTED!!!!

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/99/s375

 

they got a senator to introduce a bill to admit them to the US back in 1985!

mind you it was struck down, but obviously the family eventually got in.

 

 

a few realestate transactions, but nothing that says he is a true player in realestate.

 

and the fraud case is a possible issue.

 

obviously he has the land for sale so the ideal situation would be a national developer.

 

 

 

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Interesting google session

 

Paul Khakshouri

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/my_own_cousin_ripped_me_off_ZLPhU9DyHamPYPoOPax9PN

 

also interesting is that this family is CONNECTED!!!!

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/99/s375

 

they got a senator to introduce a bill to admit them to the US back in 1985!

mind you it was struck down, but obviously the family eventually got in.

 

 

a few realestate transactions, but nothing that says he is a true player in realestate.

 

and the fraud case is a possible issue.

 

obviously he has the land for sale so the ideal situation would be a national developer.

 

I'm not sure that I consider this guy's plan for this lot to be particularly feasible. However, this is one of the most egregious surface lots downtown, so its nice to hear SOME talk about development, even if its in unlikely.

 

The one think I did like that this guy had to say in the Courant article was altering the Bond lobby to open those big windows back up to the street. That is an absolutely huge no-brainer, I have no idea why it wasn't done that way from day one.

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Beerbeer, you sir are 97% correct.

 

I think we all see this as speculative chatter.  but like MQR said, its good to atleast be able to talk about this lot..  Its a damn horrible lot.

 

think of the millions of pedestrians over the years that have walked from the main/Trumbull part of downtown around the arena to pigs eye/sally, Coaches or some other bar only to be faced with this scar in the streetscape. 

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  • 9 months later...

I wanted to make more comment here....

 

This guy never really was gonna develop this, it surely was a pipe dream, but I am excited by the prospect of a sale (price seems high though)

 

IF he can sell it, the buyers surely would be serious enough to develop it. 

 

The real issue here is that this lot is kinda small and would have parking issued no matter what would be built

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