MassMutual Capital West

[Insurance City Ayatollah]

MassMutual is expected to announce the buyer of the Connecticut Mutual building on Garden St. at the end of November- the deal is currently being finalized, but it's expected to close at the end of the month. Meanwhile, the Capitol West eyesore across the street, while encountering asbestos delays, is finally being renovated. Anybody have any idea what the use of these buildings will be? Capitol West is currently a cancer on the neighborhood. I wonder if the same company could be buying both buildings? MetLife perhaps? It would be great if an insurance company filled both buildings. Not only would it do great things for Spring St. and the surrounding neighborhood, but it would help out the Hartford job market.

[HartfordTycoon]

MassMutual is expected to announce the buyer of the Connecticut Mutual building on Garden St. at the end of November- the deal is currently being finalized, but it's expected to close at the end of the month. Meanwhile, the Capitol West eyesore across the street, while encountering asbestos delays, is finally being renovated. Anybody have any idea what the use of these buildings will be? Capitol West is currently a cancer on the neighborhood. I wonder if the same company could be buying both buildings? MetLife perhaps? It would be great if an insurance company filled both buildings. Not only would it do great things for Spring St. and the surrounding neighborhood, but it would help out the Hartford job market.

Capitol West is being converted into apartments and I have no idea who plans on buying the old Conn Mutual building.

[Luca Brasi]

I have no idea either - but if I had to guess, I would have to put my money on the Hartford who is looking to move some of its operations back into CT.

That's a pretty big building...

[HartfordTycoon]

That's great if the Hartford is going to buy it. That campus is already massive. I used to work there in 55 Farminton Ave. when I was in High School at Hartford Public around the corner. I wonder how long before the Downtown boom expands into Asylum Hill.

[Luca Brasi]

Asylum Hill is a great neighborhood with some of the city's best Victorian architecture. I wish Aetna and The Hartford, its two largest residents would get together and come up with a plan to improve the entire neighborhood the way Travelers did with the Front St. neighborhood. The Hartford especially needs to integrate better into the neighborhood. Right now, they are like an enclosed business park. The area behind The Hartford, the entire area north of Farmington and the corners of Farmington and Sigourney and the corner of Farmington and Laurel all need cleaning up.

[ctman987]

Capital West is bcecoming apartments which is being done by a New York developer from Brooklyn I beleive.

The MassMutual site is enourmous and has lots of potential. I hope they find a buyer who can make the best use of it.

[MadVlad]

Too bad ING hadn't snatched up that site....

[HartfordTycoon]

On the subject of ING, I'm starting to think the move to E. Htfd. is not really all that bad of a thing. They are committed to actually building facilities in Greater Hartford. That could mean they could be looking to have a new headquarters. East Hartford is probably cheaper than Atlanta or Hartford for that matter, companies move to cut cost. Plus it is in the regions best interest that established companies commit to the Renchsler Site to make sure it's a success.

[dapapabear2]

They are committed to actually building facilities in Greater Hartford. That could mean they could be looking to have a new headquarters.

I work for ING downtown and they claim we will not be moving over the river anytime soon. I can't remember the exact wording of the note they sent out to us but they did say that the lease at State House Square a lot more time left than the one on Farmington Ave. Also they talked about maintaining a presence downtown or some such pretty words. No rumours of leaving Atlanta that I know of. I would have loved it had they bought Mass Mutual, I could have walked across the street to work.

[Hiramicus]

Does anyone have any pictures of the Mass Mutual building?

[Insurance City Ayatollah]

Does anyone have any pictures of the Mass Mutual building?

I have a ton- I'll post a couple once I figure out how.

By the way, it seems that progress on Capitol West has stalled ever since the asbestos accident. I haven't seen any work done since October.

[ctman987]

There was an article in this mornings Courant about how the talks with ING, the town of East Hartford and the Rentschler Field developer have been slow. Mayor of EH a little concerned that jobs may go to Atlanta. If we cant keep these 2000 jobs in Hartford we at least need to keep them in the Greater Hartford area and ING and Cabela's would be a great start to the Rentschler Field development

[Insurance City Ayatollah]

As the last of the MassMutual's Hartford employees leave the stately Garden Street building for a tired, disposable 1980s office park in Enfield, the prospective purchaser has pulled out- most likely as a result of MassMutual's allowing the Hartford building to fall into disrepair since announcing the impending sale in 2003. This, coupled with the apparent abandonment of work on the Capitol West building, leaves a big question mark for the Asylum Hill neighborhood.

Good tenants for those buildings would really transform the neighborhood (at least for the Garden St. building, that is. The Capitol West eyesore can come down, as far as I care).

I hope a business purchases it for the local economy and job market's sake. At $13M, it's quite a bargain for a firm in need of a large building with great parking for 1200+ employees (a Hartford rarity). As someone who worked in this beautiful, historic building for several years, I developed quite an affection for the building and its neighborhood, I would love to see it go to a suitable buyer who will keep it in top form.

Here's a link to the listing:

Listing for Connecticut Mutual Building

[ctman987]

There are projects happening all over the city big and small from all the work downtown to the new Goodwin Estates in the West End to the new CVS retail center being built at Wethersfield Ave & Airport Rd in the South End to a new CarMax dealership in the North Meadows but the city seems not to care about Asylum Hill maybe because it is so close to the downtown area (???) Anyway there is the Capital West Mass, CT Mutual Site and lets not forget noone really cares about the CT Culinary Institutute's attempts to move into the Hastings when they should be. We need to not let a great neighborhood that is so rich in history and so close to all the work downtown be forgotten

[redbaron]

Sizable Plans For City Site - Article from the Courant

The new owners of the historic Connecticut Mutual headquarters in Asylum Hill will pump as much as $30 million into the now vacant complex and plan to lease space to at least several office tenants, possibly signing the first deal early in 2007.

That's a great building, I'm sure they have a big tenant lined up. And wow, no public money...

[robm324]

Another great piece of news. No one spends $30 Million on office space unless a study showed a reason to be optimistic about the market.

[ctman987]

Great news....and another historic building being reused in the city of Hartford. And quite honestly I am happy this building is not becoming residential...I think we now need to work on attracting more jobs back to the capital city and this is a great start!!

Also Calare Properties already has the Garden Street property on their list of current properties and looking through there list of other properties this is their only CT property and one of their only true urban properties

http://www.calare.com/properties.html

And Hackman Capital Properties is currently working on the former Pratt & Whitney facility in North Haven and working on plans for a 225 acre piece of land near the casinos

http://www.hackmancapital.com/current.htm

[HartfordTycoon]

Certainly positive news for Asylum Hill and Hartford.

[spatulashack]

" They also want to get permission to have Fraser Place, which runs through the complex, abandoned as a public road so it can be used for parking."

Boooo! This is a great project but if we learned anything from the closing of Temple St. it is that shutting down even the smallest of streets to give a slight bit of convenience to those working in office parks is just not worth it. Keep the street open!

[HartfordTycoon]

" They also want to get permission to have Fraser Place, which runs through the complex, abandoned as a public road so it can be used for parking."

Boooo! This is a great project but if we learned anything from the closing of Temple St. it is that shutting down even the smallest of streets to give a slight bit of convenience to those working in office parks is just not worth it. Keep the street open!

[spatulashack]

But Temple street was closed to pedestrians as well. I think this could be OK as long as it's open to pedestrians which sounds likely from what I read. And they also said they would do exterior work and create a small landscaped park. I would like to see the renderings before passing judgement on the design.

[drc72]

Sizable Plans For City Site - Article from the Courant

The new owners of the historic Connecticut Mutual headquarters in Asylum Hill will pump as much as $30 million into the now vacant complex and plan to lease space to at least several office tenants, possibly signing the first deal early in 2007.

That's a great building, I'm sure they have a big tenant lined up. And wow, no public money...

[Captain59]

Anyone used to worl for Connecticut Mutual's temp service, CM Pros? Anyone remember Rose? I worked a few office jobs with them at that building during college, and one summer I did landscaping there as well. THAT'S when you realize how huge that place is.

[dapapabear2]

It is exciting to see that something will be happening with the Mass Mutual Building. Closing Fraser Place is an extremely negative prospect for those few of us that live here. I know the Courant said the last remaining residence will be torn down but that's not true, our address is Fraser Place and unless they plan on buying all of us out they will not be touching this building. The main entrance for my side of the building is on Fraser Place. It will create somewhat of a hardship for loading and unloading things like children, groceries, furniture, never mind the fact that our front yard will now be a parking lot. There's too many streets closed, or blocked, already here on the Hill for us to lose another one. There is a meeting for interested parties at noon on 2/22. It will be held in the Mass Mutual building - entry through parking lot 2 on Fraser Place. It will be interesting to see how they can do anything with Myrtle St since it's just wide enough for 2 way traffic now. They have amibitious plans, hope they see them through not run away like the folks did who were rehabing the building on Spring St.