Hartford Restaurant/Retail

[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.rockvillebank.com/asp/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-bank.com/locations/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]

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.

[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]

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]

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

[jcrc]

I guess it's official now, the sushi place on Pratt Street is not happening. Too many nonsenses from the city, plus landlord and tenant are not seeing things eye to eye.

[The Voice of Reason]

too bad.

I walked past it on Sunday evening and noticed no change yet again. at this point I am not suprized. someone will eventually use that space for something. too many egos got involved on every level, and once someone is pissed off at the city level I assume your goose is cooked. very sad stuff.

that corner has the potential to be Hartfords most vibrant

[jcrc]

A pizza place is coming to the old Dunkin' Donuts place in Resident Inn on Main Street

[The Voice of Reason]

good spot for a pizza place IMO.

thanks for the heads up Jojo.

I miss being able to get coffee at your place now that I work in the boonies....

[The Voice of Reason]

a recap of some stuff I know, saw or heard.

Quiznos is gone on Main Street. is has been replaced by Agrora, a greek/turkish place, apparently owned by the DD's people

the rumor however is that they are also going to get into the corner space that was supposed to be the rooftop bar and have a bar part, but thats totally rumor.

also on the rumor side, but more likely is that Kyto might close downtown

what else???

a new Pizza place is opening next to Bella rosa so, from the corner or Temple you now have City Steam, Mariott, Bella Rosa, Pizza, 960 main. I think it was the duncan donut.

theres more.. some steak/BBQ place is opening where the indian place used to be on Market street. its the back side of CCC. sounds like a nice place, but its a tough location

anything else?

theres something I am forgetting

[PubCrawl]

Al's Market and Deli on Asylum, where Niro used to be. Niro has moved to Pratt, where Bell and Beep was - which i've heard moved to 960 main somewhere. Also Hot Tomatoes reopened yesterday which is pretty good news. And the convenience store in 915 main is in the process of getting their liquor permit, meaning there will now be 3 places in the downtown area to buy beer.

[The Voice of Reason]

OK, so it seems the Kyto location is not just a rumor.

The Agrora people/DD's people are opening a martini bar there, and hope that sometime next year they can figure out a way with the city to open the roof top part, but thats kind of a phase two.

YAY!!!

[LOV]

jeez... 3 years in progress and never even opened. i always joked around that kyto was just a money laundering scheme.

now i see all of the old koji staff working at fengs. wonder if koji is running out of steam completely and this will be a hot tomatoes type of re-shuffle where everyone leaves.

OK, so it seems the Kyto location is not just a rumor.

[Luca Brasi]

a recap of some stuff I know, saw or heard.

Quiznos is gone on Main Street. is has been replaced by Agrora, a greek/turkish place, apparently owned by the DD's people

the rumor however is that they are also going to get into the corner space that was supposed to be the rooftop bar and have a bar part, but thats totally rumor.

also on the rumor side, but more likely is that Kyto might close downtown

what else???

a new Pizza place is opening next to Bella rosa so, from the corner or Temple you now have City Steam, Mariott, Bella Rosa, Pizza, 960 main. I think it was the duncan donut.

theres more.. some steak/BBQ place is opening where the indian place used to be on Market street. its the back side of CCC. sounds like a nice place, but its a tough location

anything else?

theres something I am forgetting

The name of the panini and wine bar is Bocca Rossa. The name of the restaurant going into 960 Main is Savin Rock Roasting Company. They already own one on the shore somewhere. Pietro's Pizza is opening up next to Bocca Rossa and will be mainly delivery, slices and take out. It is the same owners of Pietro's at Wolcott Hill in Wethersfield.

Agora opened and used everything from Quiznos... even the signage. If you walked in, you would think it was still a Quiznos.

OK, so it seems the Kyto location is not just a rumor.

The Agrora people/DD's people are opening a martini bar there, and hope that sometime next year they can figure out a way with the city to open the roof top part, but thats kind of a phase two.

YAY!!!

Where did you hear this?

[The Voice of Reason]

The name of the panini and wine bar is Bocca Rossa. The name of the restaurant going into 960 Main is Savin Rock Roasting Company. They already own one on the shore somewhere. Pietro's Pizza is opening up next to Bocca Rossa and will be mainly delivery, slices and take out. It is the same owners of Pietro's at Wolcott Hill in Wethersfield.

Agora opened and used everything from Quiznos... even the signage. If you walked in, you would think it was still a Quiznos.

Where did you hear this?

my buddy, a regular asked them

[zimbu1228]

http://savinrockroastingstratford.com/Savin_Rock_Roasting_Company/Locations.html

comming soon 960 main st, hartford

[The Voice of Reason]

another rumor is that Koji mill give up on its downtown location.

they seem to do very well in the evening, so I'm surprised to hear this, but its just a rumor, and I think maybe based on all the trouble they had with the city on their Kyto plans. Im sure they lost a boatload of money on that too.