Bank of America Building sold

[beerbeer 6]

The building across Main Street from the Old State House was bought by a Manhatten develop who lives in Greenwich. He may keep it as an office building but he may covert to apartments or perhaps mixed use.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-northla...dlines-business

[GregV 0]

Great press for Hartford, and considering how old that building is repositioning the asset could be a good idea.

[BJE 0]

I presume the parking garage along Asylum, just west of 777 Main, is part of the deal too? I've always thought that that structure could use a good facade renovation, and upgrading of its retail storefronts. While they're at, maybe demolish or renovate and expand the little connector building between the garage and the office tower, and build out to the sidewalks on Asylum and Pearl.

I think 777 Main, itself, is one of the ugliest in downtown Hartford, but like Bushnell Tower it probably has good views from the inside...

BJE

[sp1dey 0]

Not the prettiest building by any means, but one of those that are necessary in a city that make up a skyline. Wonder what can be done to spruce it up and how it would be as a mixed use facility. Anyone know about how much is currently occupied?

[Luca Brasi 1]

I think this might be a little too much. A realtor had told me about this last month, but I didn't put much thought into it. What is going to happen to Bank of America? Hopefully they have plans to stay in downtown. Losing them wouldn't be so great. Instead of converting an office building to housing and trading daytime workers for residents, why not build new on an empty lot?

That's a pretty big building, so I'm assuming at least 500 more housing units if this happens? And I agree with BJE - the back of that building needs to be torn down. More street level retail with a couple of lofts above would be nice in that little garden/cafeteria and ATM space.

[sp1dey 0]

Since the Fleet/BOA conversion, how much of this building is still occupied by BOA? You'll have to excuse my ignorance, but most of my adult years were spent living in Boston... was this building actually fleet before?

On a side note, BOA really pulled the wool over Boston officials who in turn supported the merger. Boston ended up losing a lot of jobs because of it. I'm sure RI and CT did as well, but I can't speak 100% on that.

[MadVlad 1]

It was Fleet, Shawmut, and I believe Connecticut National before that. I think a low rise on the backside of that would be awful. You can't build something small right behind that behemoth. Maybe the conncetor building could be a few levels, but where the garage is, if they knocked it down, they should build at LEAST 15 stories there...

[uconn99 0]

In the Article about Northland buying this tower a few days ago, I believe it said only 15 floors were in use by BofA. I think a combination Residential/Office use would be good. 12 floors of residential would be a around 60-65 good size units.

[GregV 0]

Yeah, I think I read it's only 60% occupied (give or take). It's office space isn't going to much use to I think a condo conversion of the top 10 floors would be great. The facade needs something though, not the greatest...

[ctman987 0]

The Hartford building is home to many of the highest executives who are a part of major Bank of America operations in CT and the surrounding area. In addition to Hartford there is a Farmington Bank of America site that employs about 400 employees

[robm324 0]

Great article in the Courant this morning on Michael Grunberg's intentions on revamping the upper floors of the Bank of America building into Condos. I don't necessarily understand how a $2 Million subsidy from the State for a parking garage could derail a $15 Million renovation. I diagree with the UCONN professor that says the city might be getting close to saturation. I disagree, it seems that way because there are roughly 1000 units coming to market within 4 years of each other, but that is just making up for all the lost time that there was no rental/condo creation during the 90's.

Hartford Courant Article on the Bank of America conversion

[beerbeer 6]

The nice thing about penthouses is that they bring monied folks into town. And those are the people who can make a differrence getting positive things done.

Also in the article, it says that Hartford 21 opens on September 1st. If those places go fast, the pace of new apartments/condos coming on line will reallly pick up.

[Captain59 0]

Great article. I hope Hartford21 sells like hotcakes as soon as it opens. That could start a snowball effect that will help get Grunberg's project into motion. I think it's funny that's he's renting a unit in Hartford21 just so he can better it. I agree with Rob...how can a $2 million subsidy be such a problem? I have no frame of referece having that kind of money--some day I will!--but I don't think that would kill it.

The more news like this the better. This would be great if it happens.

[drc72 5]

It was Fleet, Shawmut, and I believe Connecticut National before that. I think a low rise on the backside of that would be awful. You can't build something small right behind that behemoth. Maybe the conncetor building could be a few levels, but where the garage is, if they knocked it down, they should build at LEAST 15 stories there...

It was Connetiuct National before that. I think a mixed use setup would be the way to go with this building.

[ctman987 0]

It's nice to see some healthy competition between developers about downtown property.

[JimSawhill 0]

It was Connetiuct National before that. I think a mixed use setup would be the way to go with this building.

Doesn't BOA have some offices over in FOUNDER PLAZA? I know Fleet had some in Founder's Plaza.

Jim S

[JimSawhill 0]

It was Connetiuct National before that. I think a mixed use setup would be the way to go with this building.

It started out as the HEADQUARTERS of Hartford National Bank. It would be nice to see the GOLD BUILDING go Condo -- or the PHOENIX building!

Jim S

[ctman987 0]

I am all for more condos downtown....especially in such a great location like the BOA Building. But I want to have my cake and eat it to. So I think we need to make sure that BOA does not "consolidate operations" to one of its suburban locations. I know they have a small building in East Hartford and a huge complex over in Farmington that they spend a lot of money on. BOA has also always talked about bringing jobs to Charlotte where there headquartered....we need to make sure BOA keeps its jobs downtown and that these condos get under way

[ctman 0]

It started out as the HEADQUARTERS of Hartford National Bank. It would be nice to see the GOLD BUILDING go Condo -- or the PHOENIX building!

Jim S

why convert the gold building when it is almost fully leased with corporate tenants? why convert the pheonix building? it too is fully occupied by it's namesake company. both buildings house high paying jobs the city/region needs.

[drc72 5]

why convert the gold building when it is almost fully leased with corporate tenants? why convert the pheonix building? it too is fully occupied by it's namesake company. both buildings house high paying jobs the city/region needs.

Yeah this is true. We need to keep those businesses going strong in Hartford.