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IN PROGRESS: Front Street @ Adriaen's Landing


Cotuit

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As I've said before, this is going to be way better than nothing. Just having visible construction is better than nothing as far as I'm concerned.

Absolutely agree, a city needs a little of everything, high rises, mid rises and low rises. The small scale of this project gives it a very good chance to succeed. Feet on the street with merchants and restaurants making a profit are the best things that can happen here.

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  • 1 month later...

So I walked through Front street today as I have a few times now. I even took more pictures not long ago that I have yet to post here.

But I have to make this statement that I might have made before.

I completely fudgeing hate how the placed their garage!!!!!!!

Not only does it face Arch street Tavern, which I concider being a bad neighbour and completely uncalled for, but now that I see it mostly built, its damn ugly, and has NO street presnce. I mean, the first 5 feet from the street are solid concrete.

Congrats to the state for letting someone build this crap

This project damn well better bring people downtown, it damn well better bring new businesses downtown and not just steal places from the rest of downtown.

This place better build a phase II with over 100 housing units in it or the whole thing is just crap!!!

this garage has me really peeved!!!

on the flp side, the main road in the development has taken shape, and you can see the scale of phase I pretty easily from the edge of the property while walking towards the Travelers plaza from Arch Street. Its nothing special, but its not terrible either. I can not stress enough that 1 additional floor would have taken this project visably into a whole nother category. It reminds me of the shops in Canton right now, or maybe evergreen walk but smaller. 1 more floor would make this start to looks like it belongs in a city. another floor would give it a chance to have the same density of Thayer Street in Providence. of course more steril, and corporate, but scale wise.

and that god damned garage.

the city has their act together and does not allow this kind of thing to happen any more, but the state just came in and allowed the 80's style bunker garage to happen. bad bad bad state!!!!!

bad!

if you dont understand my complaint drive down columbus and take a right on Arch. check out that beast. its almost as pretty as the church street garage

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So I walked through Front street today as I have a few times now. I even took more pictures not long ago that I have yet to post here.

But I have to make this statement that I might have made before.

I completely fudgeing hate how the placed their garage!!!!!!!

Not only does it face Arch street Tavern, which I concider being a bad neighbour and completely uncalled for, but now that I see it mostly built, its damn ugly, and has NO street presnce. I mean, the first 5 feet from the street are solid concrete.

Congrats to the state for letting someone build this crap

This project damn well better bring people downtown, it damn well better bring new businesses downtown and not just steal places from the rest of downtown.

This place better build a phase II with over 100 housing units in it or the whole thing is just crap!!!

this garage has me really peeved!!!

on the flp side, the main road in the development has taken shape, and you can see the scale of phase I pretty easily from the edge of the property while walking towards the Travelers plaza from Arch Street. Its nothing special, but its not terrible either. I can not stress enough that 1 additional floor would have taken this project visably into a whole nother category. It reminds me of the shops in Canton right now, or maybe evergreen walk but smaller. 1 more floor would make this start to looks like it belongs in a city. another floor would give it a chance to have the same density of Thayer Street in Providence. of course more steril, and corporate, but scale wise.

and that god damned garage.

the city has their act together and does not allow this kind of thing to happen any more, but the state just came in and allowed the 80's style bunker garage to happen. bad bad bad state!!!!!

bad!

if you dont understand my complaint drive down columbus and take a right on Arch. check out that beast. its almost as pretty as the church street garage

I just drove by... as far as Arch St, goes, at the very least it may give them MORE business b/c people will see it when they drive in, and it's right across the street (assuming anyone drives in from cul-de-sac-ville, plus who the f knows what else is going in there. I'm more worried about what people will see when they face west. Are they going to do anything to make "phase 2" look non-crappy, or will it be an open pit with the rotting hulk of the Times building in full view. At least put a small park there for now. I'm still giving Front St. a chance (for now....)

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So I walked through Front street today as I have a few times now. I even took more pictures not long ago that I have yet to post here.

But I have to make this statement that I might have made before.

I completely fudgeing hate how the placed their garage!!!!!!!

Not only does it face Arch street Tavern, which I concider being a bad neighbour and completely uncalled for, but now that I see it mostly built, its damn ugly, and has NO street presnce. I mean, the first 5 feet from the street are solid concrete.

Congrats to the state for letting someone build this crap

This project damn well better bring people downtown, it damn well better bring new businesses downtown and not just steal places from the rest of downtown.

This place better build a phase II with over 100 housing units in it or the whole thing is just crap!!!

this garage has me really peeved!!!

on the flp side, the main road in the development has taken shape, and you can see the scale of phase I pretty easily from the edge of the property while walking towards the Travelers plaza from Arch Street. Its nothing special, but its not terrible either. I can not stress enough that 1 additional floor would have taken this project visably into a whole nother category. It reminds me of the shops in Canton right now, or maybe evergreen walk but smaller. 1 more floor would make this start to looks like it belongs in a city. another floor would give it a chance to have the same density of Thayer Street in Providence. of course more steril, and corporate, but scale wise.

and that god damned garage.

the city has their act together and does not allow this kind of thing to happen any more, but the state just came in and allowed the 80's style bunker garage to happen. bad bad bad state!!!!!

bad!

if you dont understand my complaint drive down columbus and take a right on Arch. check out that beast. its almost as pretty as the church street garage

**Claps**

I ate at Tamarind on Pratt St today. The guy that works there and i had a chat, and he was also dismayed that Front St has no residential. So, the chinese waiter that barely speaks English gets it, but the City/State/developers have no idea....

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just to be clear, front street can not be blamed on the city at all. This is 100% state.

I even found out recently that the city will not even get taxes for this land because it will remain state owned.

crazyness!!

the planning department had no say what so ever, and this project did not have to go to a design review board or anything. they just said, ok were ready to build, and then they built.

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just to be clear, front street can not be blamed on the city at all. This is 100% state.

I even found out recently that the city will not even get taxes for this land because it will remain state owned.

crazyness!!

the planning department had no say what so ever, and this project did not have to go to a design review board or anything. they just said, ok were ready to build, and then they built.

And whose fault is that? If the City wasn't a corrupt, self-serving, irresponsible entity, it would have had full say on the project. Maybe we need the Mob to run the city. Providence was corrupt (maybe still is, I have no idea), but at least they could strong-arm the pieces they needed for the betterment of all, Hartford just hooks friends up with parking contracts and creates a vacuum...

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And whose fault is that? If the City wasn't a corrupt, self-serving, irresponsible entity, it would have had full say on the project. Maybe we need the Mob to run the city. Providence was corrupt (maybe still is, I have no idea), but at least they could strong-arm the pieces they needed for the betterment of all, Hartford just hooks friends up with parking contracts and creates a vacuum...

If anyone cares to remember, it was the city that held back critical funding that delayed the project. That delay hurt the project significantly because the economic climate changed. In all, there is plenty of blame to go around here. JMHO, Jay

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As I've said before, this is going to be way better than nothing. Just having visible construction is better than nothing as far as I'm concerned.

Just curious, when does a developer typically start announcing tenants? According to the website there are 8 stores to fill - wouldn't announcing 1 or 2 (assuming they have any) create a little buzz to help the marketing effort?

Edited by Theophrastus Bombastus
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Just curious, when does a developer typically start announcing tenants? According to the website there are 8 stores to fill - wouldn't announcing 1 or 2 (assuming they have any) create a little buzz to help the marketing effort?

you would think, but from the tiny bit I know, most of these tenants do not actually sign leases, they come to agreements, and therefore are not in a legal obligation. they can wait and see, and if the developer gets no one else they can just back out and not be the only tenant in a building.

So I guess if there were a major anchor signing things might be announced, but I think front street is supposed to a a bunch of smaller type places. so who knows.

having any interest at all is a great thing.

I tell ya, if AI can get some more tenants and maybe a few retail ones, this part of the city will change dramatically

EDIT: I just looked at their site, and there are only 8 spaces being built. 4500sf up to 17000, but just 8 in total.

Edited by The Voice of Reason
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  • 4 weeks later...

that pic is at least a month old.

I should really get out there and take some more pics, but walking out there is just not very attractive with the temp we have been having lately

My wife said there were picketers out there today on Columbus Boulevard. Anyone know why? Jay

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  • 3 weeks later...

An update to keep you guys mildly interested.

They have taken the tent off the building closest to Travelers, and you can pretty clearly see the end result. I am fairly certain there is glass in the openings as well. the other building is a little behind that one, but part of the tent has come down there as well. I could see a cement boom arm today, so somewhere on the site they are dong a pour today. If I were to guess where i would say that it is the final slab as that is uaually done late in the process after all the mechanicals are in. who knows though because I am by no means an expert. infact I know little about strip malls.

but you can see lighting fixtures in and on the garage now in working order. I bet they will be getting the road work started before long and street lights etc... they may wait on that till its warmer but progress is happening.

another poit of interest is the pedestrian bridge between the science center and the convention center.

they are pouring concrete on the final support structure now. once that cures, they will be adding in the actual roadway.

come spring time there will hopefully be a lot more reasons and places to walk in Adrians landing area.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Conveniently, I just worked onsite yesterday and talked to one of the engineers. It appears they have one signed tenant, some Irish bar or something. The site itself is scheduled to be done in June (this year? next year?) and the guy said the ESPN thing wasn't an ESPNZone (ESPN apparently sold the rights to that away, it would be something different), but he hadn't heard anything about it.

On a side note, it looks like they are putting in the effort, so it'll look nice, but I'm still skeptical. The lack of residential (Phase 2, yeah right) with be the death-knell of this project. The Arch St Tavern has to be irate, they have a stupid parking garage directly across the street. Any planner that has a parking garage without floor level retail is a buffoon. Nobody wants to look at a parking garage, and this being brand new, there is no reason they should have to. Arch St Tavern is getting a raw deal, but they should be used to it, they've been getting a raw deal from this project for years...

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It is simply incredible that this is what we're left with, but I agree that it is better than what was there (nothing). Any city focused on mega-projects as its source of urban development will inevitably over-pay and under-deliver. As someone stated earlier in this thread, site contamination complicating excavation is the only excuse for this sort of outcome.

Hartford never needed this project, or the civic center, or the science center, or even (forgive me) the Whale. What it has needed for some time, however, is organic growth encouraged by a favorable business climate a higher standard of living. What it needs is a middle class tax base that has a stake in the community.

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What Hartford didn't need is the government building highways through it, to take the wealth out of the city. There are many of us that want Hartford to be the city it once was. I don't like all that has become Adriaen's Landing, but at this point, organically, the only thing that's going to happen is more sprawl and nothing will happen downtown. What we need is mass transportation and more state aid for the cities, spent more effectively.

And I for one will never park a vehicle in that hideous garage out of principle. I do however look forward to spending money at Front St. instead of spending it in the suburbs.

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  • 1 month later...

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