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IN PROGRESS: Front Street @ Adriaen's Landing


Cotuit

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I'm officially losing the faith for this project. I've been patient and optimistic, but I agree with Mamul, I think we will end up with a strip mall now.

Never mind Front Street, I'm losing faith in the City of Hartford, period. I'm tired of giving Mayor Perez my tax dollars and nothing gets accopmplished. As soon as my lease at Clemens Place is up, I'm moving back to "Condo Heaven" in Middletown.

Edited by PennConn
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my point is that the residential part of front street is not that important. the retail and entertainment is.

I totally disagree. I think residential is the most important part of the development. In fact, I feel that there should have been more residential, less retail. That is, of course, only my opinion.

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I totally disagree. I think residential is the most important part of the development. In fact, I feel that there should have been more residential, less retail. That is, of course, only my opinion.

I think that untill this project is built correctly it should be planted with grass and a few benches ploped around it so people from Travelers and the CC and the hotel can plat frisbee or read a book. planting trees would be a waste of money as I hope this would be developed within the decade.

I will include this in the longer version of what I started writing.

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The whole project should be dumped... get a condo/townhouse developer to build a new neighborhood full of professionals. Three story townhouses would work fine there. A few shops can go in between, like there were in the area before, a lifestyle center is not needed. Just get some people living there. Develop the retail where retail has traditionally been, on Main, Asylum, Pratt, Trumbull etc, where out-of-towners can take mass transit to so the project won't be dominated by parking.

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Never mind Front Street, I'm losing faith in the City of Hartford, period. I'm tired of giving Mayor Perez my tax dollars and nothing gets accopmplished. As soon as my lease at Clemens Place is up, I'm moving back to "Condo Heaven" in Middletown.

Downtown Middletown is great - the feel is much more authentic than West Hartford Center. My friends and I often drive there to walk around and eat.

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I disagree. In my opinion, residential is the absolute key to any sort of retail success downtown. The 115 apartments were satisfactory only because we were promised a phase two, which hopefully was to include far more residential. Otherwise while Front Street may have some initial success, it will be due to novelty and won't bring suburbanites downtown in the long run. In addition, no amount of retail will be able to exclusively survive off of the convention crowd - it's just too sporadic.

i think that the entertainment and retail component of the front street project will draw suburbanites. if it does not, then why build it. it must certainly offer a little more than the union place/allyn street intersection. it should absolutely offer more than west hartford where perching on a bar stool or table, eating and drinking is all that is there for entertainment. front street should blow that away as an entertainment hub. front street should be unique to the region, never mind the city. i expect that the science center will draw hundreds and maybe a thousand people a day. this thing is going to be a big deal. the science center is unique to the state and beyond. and it has been my impression that the convention center does more than a sporadic business. the atheneum is there as well. the front street entertainment should be focused on drawing the people who are there for these existing attractions and making it fun for everyone; noon to 2am. there should definitely be more than a thousand people a day at adrian's landing for the attractions. suburbia will come for venues that offer more than their towns do. the housing would be great, but it does not have to be right there.

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Downtown Middletown is great - the feel is much more authentic than West Hartford Center. My friends and I often drive there to walk around and eat.

While you are in Middletown be sure to visit my friend Neal at Java Palooza. I think if the town narrow the main street and slow down the traffic will make Middletown much more pedestrian friendly. Other than that I agree with you about the authentic feeling of the place. If you want to visit a real nice place try Northampton, Mass.

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i think that the entertainment and retail component of the front street project will draw suburbanites. if it does not, then why build it. it must certainly offer a little more than the union place/allyn street intersection. it should absolutely offer more than west hartford where perching on a bar stool or table, eating and drinking is all that is there for entertainment. front street should blow that away as an entertainment hub. front street should be unique to the region, never mind the city. i expect that the science center will draw hundreds and maybe a thousand people a day. this thing is going to be a big deal. the science center is unique to the state and beyond. and it has been my impression that the convention center does more than a sporadic business. the atheneum is there as well. the front street entertainment should be focused on drawing the people who are there for these existing attractions and making it fun for everyone; noon to 2am. there should definitely be more than a thousand people a day at adrian's landing for the attractions. suburbia will come for venues that offer more than their towns do. the housing would be great, but it does not have to be right there.

I can understand and respect much of your opinion on this however I agree with the others that housing is vital at Front Street. I think if I had more faith in the developer and the state I would think it might come out great anyway as a dedicated entertainment district. The problem for me is that I don't have the faith that scrapping the housing will make the project spectacular from an entertainment standpoint. We have seen an article in the past week demonstrating that sudios and one bedrooms Downtown are in demand. They should at least start by building some one bedrooms and studios at Front Street. They would fill up and really give the district an instant boost in viability. I originally envisioned a mixed use district that maybe would not fill all available retail space at first due to market concerns and would even be kind of slow filling up with residents, but one that would have at least an anchor in ESPN and maybe a new showpiece establishment for one of our local chains and/or a national chain or two that was functional even with half of the site still barren. Now I still see essentially the same thing, but with no residential and half of the site still left undeveloped trying to lure retail to a pretty dormant corner of the city. If thats how they proceed, I pray and hope it works, but I'm not on board with the plan.

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my perspective on scale is this.

Imagine yourself as the owner of a resturant or retail chain. You know Hartfords reputation, you hear of a rebirth, but you see no proof. You are invited to build a location in a new project at front street. would you rather sink 1,000,000 into a scaled down entertainment district phase I of III? with Bushnell towers your closest living customers? or would you rather put your money behind a fully built our entertainment district with 500 housing units as part of the project?

I think that Blackstone makes a good point about this district needing to be more than what the area satalite towns offer. This is the "Big City" so it should have things no other town around here has. The ESPN Zone would be a big plus, as would establishments like the Toads place clone. It would be great if there could be a few live entertainment venues down there to go with the ESPN Zone maybe a movie theater and a dave and buster type place that lame conventioners seem to love. haha.

anyhoo build me a place I can be proud of Hartford and I promise I will spend money there

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While you are in Middletown be sure to visit my friend Neal at Java Palooza. I think if the town narrow the main street and slow down the traffic will make Middletown much more pedestrian friendly. Other than that I agree with you about the authentic feeling of the place. If you want to visit a real nice place try Northampton, Mass.

My friends and I used to hang around there all the time; after a while we even started referring to Middletown by its name. I think we liked the idea of how ridiculous it was to drive 15 miles to visit a coffee shop.

My other favorite small city in CT is New London. Do you have any friends out there?

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The whole project should be dumped... get a condo/townhouse developer to build a new neighborhood full of professionals. Three story townhouses would work fine there. A few shops can go in between, like there were in the area before, a lifestyle center is not needed. Just get some people living there. Develop the retail where retail has traditionally been, on Main, Asylum, Pratt, Trumbull etc, where out-of-towners can take mass transit to so the project won't be dominated by parking.

I actually agree with you mike, but the problem is a sizable amount of retail/entertainment is needed to make the Convention Center more attractive to potential customers. As I said before, I have completely lost faith in this city and the dolts running it to get this done the right way. Once Rowland was gone and the city became more involved in this project, it became doomed.

I would love to see a neighborhood of townhouses... thats what USED to be there before they bulldozed the entire neighborhood for those awful Sheldon/Charter Oak aprtments and Percival Tower. And entire functioning neighborhood gone... just like that.

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I actually agree with you mike, but the problem is a sizable amount of retail/entertainment is needed to make the Convention Center more attractive to potential customers. As I said before, I have completely lost faith in this city and the dolts running it to get this done the right way. Once Rowland was gone and the city became more involved in this project, it became doomed.

I would love to see a neighborhood of townhouses... thats what USED to be there before they bulldozed the entire neighborhood for those awful Sheldon/Charter Oak aprtments and Percival Tower. And entire functioning neighborhood gone... just like that.

The problem is that those charter oak apartments are there and can not easily be undone. So attempting to undo the mistake of the past will only make this area even less usefull. This is not the the place for a row of townhomes. If there is any place that would work right now its over by the capitol. This area needs density and needs something for the conventioneers. The project as origonally invisioned was perfect. high density residential to tie into the high density at Bushnell tower, and an entertainment district with some retail to tie into the cultural district and make the area more tourist and resident friendly. people might actually walk up the street and realize we have museums here.

Conventioners would not walk up a street filled with townhomes on it, and retailers wont move downtown without more high density residential. Do it right or don't do it at all!

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A call to action my fellow UP members

I just got a reply from the city regarding the letter I sent them. I will be writing the state the the CCDA as they suggest. the following is the letter except my name was changed to protect the guilty.

Dear Mr. Reason,

You raise excellent points, which echo the discussions we have had within our office. Let me assure you that the recent announcement about the change in development plans of Front Street was a big disappointment to Mayor Perez, and he has voiced the same objections as the ones you raised in your e-mail.

Unfortunately, this project is not under our purview. It is a State project, funded and managed by CCEDA, the Capital City Economic Development Agency, which is managed by a Board of Directors. Here is a link to their website: http://www.cceda.state.ct.us/index.htm

CCEDA chose the developer and has informed the City that it is continuing that relationship. I encourage you to contact Jim Abromaitis, CCEDA

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The problem is that those charter oak apartments are there and can not easily be undone. So attempting to undo the mistake of the past will only make this area even less usefull. This is not the the place for a row of townhomes. If there is any place that would work right now its over by the capitol. This area needs density and needs something for the conventioneers. The project as origonally invisioned was perfect. high density residential to tie into the high density at Bushnell tower, and an entertainment district with some retail to tie into the cultural district and make the area more tourist and resident friendly. people might actually walk up the street and realize we have museums here.

Conventioners would not walk up a street filled with townhomes on it, and retailers wont move downtown without more high density residential. Do it right or don't do it at all!

I think everyone at UP would love to see some nice tall upscale condos/apartments with tons of upscale retail and commercial, but I just don't think it is realistic in the current economic climate. Large condos will never get the proper financing and I doubt anybody has faith in a large scale aprtment buidling until H21 gets more filled up. It needs to be done on a human scale, something like Newbury Street in Boston; it doesn't need to be such high density in order to be succesful and in order for people to walk it. If Front Street stole the Newbury Street model I believe it would be the most succesful without being unrealistic.

I do think that if Nitkin isn't going to do it correctly he needs to walk away and walk away now. The worst case scenario is a strip mall on that site.

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The problem is that those charter oak apartments are there and can not easily be undone. So attempting to undo the mistake of the past will only make this area even less usefull. This is not the the place for a row of townhomes. If there is any place that would work right now its over by the capitol. This area needs density and needs something for the conventioneers. The project as origonally invisioned was perfect. high density residential to tie into the high density at Bushnell tower, and an entertainment district with some retail to tie into the cultural district and make the area more tourist and resident friendly. people might actually walk up the street and realize we have museums here.

Conventioners would not walk up a street filled with townhomes on it, and retailers wont move downtown without more high density residential. Do it right or don't do it at all!

There is no reason to stall development in Hartford because it's not a grand lifestyle center, even though I'm doubting I'll see anything built there soon. And I invite you to visit Boston's new convention center... there is absolutely nothing around it except office buildings, parking lots, and a Silver Line stop that heads to the middle of Boston. Those people need a quick and easy way to the center of Hartford if they want to shop or dine.

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There is no reason to stall development in Hartford because it's not a grand lifestyle center, even though I'm doubting I'll see anything built there soon. And I invite you to visit Boston's new convention center... there is absolutely nothing around it except office buildings, parking lots, and a Silver Line stop that heads to the middle of Boston. Those people need a quick and easy way to the center of Hartford if they want to shop or dine.

Mike, I am not looking to stall a development because its not a grand lifestyle center. I am looking to kill a development because it gives away 6.5 acres and $70,000,000 in state, city, and federal dollars but provides nothing to the city in return. I want something built on that location, but given all of the incentives associated with it there should be NO settling and no half assed jobs. Its stupid business practice to give away everything and get nothing back.

for the civic center mall redevelopment what did we give away? and what did we get back. I am just saying we should be picky/patient enough to make sure we get back something worthy of our great city and the gifts we will be bestowing on this undeserving developer.

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Nice job.... I sent an e-mail to Nitkin once, but surprise-surprise, no reply. Has even ONE actual retail name been put out there except ESPN and Toad's? Pathetic. Make it a park for now I guess...........

My letter

Mr. Abromaitis,

I am writing today regarding the development or lack there of at "Front Street". As someone who pays close attention to the developments, proposals, plans and dreams of this city I am disgusted with the

Edited by Theophrastus Bombastus
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Nice job.... I sent an e-mail to Nitkin once, but surprise-surprise, no reply. Has even ONE actual retail name been put out there except ESPN and Toad's? Pathetic. Make it a park for now I guess...........

Nitkin is non responsive. I e-mailed them months ago and got nothing back.

The city impressed me with their response.

I now feel like I should be sending my letter to the govonors office and maybe some media outlets. It just blows my mind how they can throw away so much money and valuable land to a developer that has promised garbage and delivered less.

as far as ESPN and Toads, that was a long long time ago. I know Toads is OUT, and have not heard about ESPN at all from Nitkin. I could be wrong about ESPN, but surely they would be touting it in their press releases like the pervious deevelopers were doing.

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Nice job.... I sent an e-mail to Nitkin once, but surprise-surprise, no reply. Has even ONE actual retail name been put out there except ESPN and Toad's? Pathetic.
Someone mentioned Brooks Brothers awhile ago.

Make it a park for now I guess...........
It will go from park to parking in no time. Edited by jcrc
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Downtown Middletown is great - the feel is much more authentic than West Hartford Center. My friends and I often drive there to walk around and eat.

I'm from Middletown and I amazed how much the city has progressed in the last ten years. Downtown has definitely come alive.

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http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=6750

Front Street Stumbles

New York developer HB Nitkin has dropped apartments from the retail mix on Front Street. The question is: Will it build at all?

Thursday, March 27, 2008

By Daniel D'Ambrosio

The most recent setback for the Front Street project on Columbus Avenue near the Convention Center leaves Hartford with a critical gap in its effort to revitalize the downtown, says Fred V. Carstensen, director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut. The Hartford Courant recently reported that Front Street developer HB Nitkin will drop its housing component and push ahead with retail and entertainment

Edited by Theophrastus Bombastus
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