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Pope Commons

redbaron

By redbaron
in Greater Hartford

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Chessplayer Whistle-Stop

Chessplayer

Posted
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Development of downtown only is very shortsighted if Hartford's other neighborhoods are left behind. The developer of Pope Commons is another buddy of Mayor Perez , who is all talk and no action. This project has gone nowhere in years, as well as his proposal for Pearl Street

Westside Property has done some good work in the city. As for the Pearl Street building, the bidding was completed earlier this year and the renovation is to start in the Spring.

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

Posted
Posted

Development of downtown only is very shortsighted if Hartford's other neighborhoods are left behind. The developer of Pope Commons is another buddy of Mayor Perez , who is all talk and no action. This project has gone nowhere in years, as well as his proposal for Pearl Street

Welcome to the boards!

I agree the development of the CBD only would be shortsighted, but there are things going on. I suppose its most important to me to have a healthy heart. Hartford right now is pretty close to having a reasonably healthy heart. The falterings/failures downtown are limited. Front Street is the most glaring. the delay at 111 Pearl is disapointing, but it seems that it is on track again.

The things going on just outside of downtown are definately the wave of things that are faltering or have failed. Colt Gateway, Capewell Nail Factory, Capewell Hotel I, Capewell hotel II, Plaza Mayor, Pope commons and I am sure there are many more.

There have been some successes. There is a Best Western that is being built just north of the Crowne Plaza, the work being done at and around the Aetna Building. The renovations Nyberg is doing on Asylum hill The lofts on Capitol Ave, the design center that the developers of pope built.

While it seems many projects must fail for a few to succeed Hartford has been getting its fair share of success lately. Lets hope that the next wave of projects that come through Hartford connect the CBD to the near by neighborhoods. I think the lofts on Capitol will be a huge step in that direction.

Cheers!

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Luca Brasi Hamlet

Luca Brasi

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Whats going on with this? They have started renovating the facade pretty extensively. Is there a tenant? Or are they making improvements to try and attract tenants to long empty storefronts?

As a side note, I wish that Home Mart store or whatever its called would go away. The place is an eyesore. They drag everything from inside outside to the sidewalks and they post and hang banners from EVERYWHERE on the property. I'm suprised the landlord doesn't make them clean up their act. It makes it that much harder to rent out neighboring storefronts.

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

Posted
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Whats going on with this? They have started renovating the facade pretty extensively. Is there a tenant? Or are they making improvements to try and attract tenants to long empty storefronts?

As a side note, I wish that Home Mart store or whatever its called would go away. The place is an eyesore. They drag everything from inside outside to the sidewalks and they post and hang banners from EVERYWHERE on the property. I'm suprised the landlord doesn't make them clean up their act. It makes it that much harder to rent out neighboring storefronts.

They got some kind of city approvals recently. Ill try edit something in here later when I find it again

from the city site.....

Approved with conditions an amendment to a Special Permit to redesign an existing commercial plaza at 1200 Park Street.

It should also be noted that this week, the owner of Pope is also looking to change the zoning at a large area near real art ways

a. Application for zoning map change for nine (9) properties: 783-787 Capitol Avenue (158403063), 789-791 Capitol Avenue (158403064), 12-14 Arbor Street (158403074), 16-30 Arbor Street (158403075), 34-56 Arbor Street (158403076), 8-10 Orange Street (159403076), 12-14 Orange Street (159403075), 16-18 Orange Street (159403074), 22 Orange Street (159403073) from I-2 industrial district to B-4 business district. Applicant- Carlos Mouta.

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KyleB Crossroads

KyleB

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Mr. Mouta was discussing the Pope Commons project last night at the 487 Main event - he is quite excited about it. They have a number of tenants lined up for the space with the current grocery (supposed to be making a considerable investment in the space) and Family Dollar as the anchors. Home Mart is apparently on a month-to-month lease and not in the long-term plans. The other tenants are small businesses like a wine store ("not a package store") and I think he said a salon or something like that.

Much of the space is going to be converted to squash courts. He is teaming up with Trinity and others to capitalize on the success of squash in the area. It sounded as though there would be 12 courts at Pope Commons, plus the 5(?) already at Trinity, making one of the largest venues in New England. And perhaps a community outreach organization to get more kids interested in the sport.

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Luca Brasi Hamlet

Luca Brasi

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This project is moving along. A laundromat is already open and operating and it looks like Family Dollar is ready to open. The facade improvements have now started at the Home Mart Store and the old Walgreens space. Its not what was originally planned for this spot but anything is an improvement to empty buildings. Looking forward to seeing more!

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HartfordTycoon Town

HartfordTycoon

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It sounds like low hopes, low expectations. This is a strip mall, it will be run down with a year.

But it won't be as run down as it is now. That place looked terrible and I haven't stopped to take notice of any improvement yet so I'm still having a hard time believing it doesn't still look terrible. I'll try to take a drive past there this weekend to see whatever is going on over there for myself. How can cosmetic enhancements be a bad thing though? Is it a long term improvement? Of course its not. It's a band aid.

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MadVlad Town

MadVlad

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It does not look terrible, it looks great, actually. That being said, I'm not going to herald a strip mall anywhere, whether it's Pope Commons, Front St, or on the Berlin Turnpike. After surface parking lots, strip malls are the worst ideas ever...

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Luca Brasi Hamlet

Luca Brasi

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I abhor strip malls. But I dislike abandoned buildings and blight even more.. and this site has sat mostly vacant for 10 years. While its hard to applaud a strip mall, at this point Ill look at the bright side and say at least the buildings are filled and at least they are serving the community.

A home design center which would have been an extension of the existing businesses on Bartholomew St and what was originally planned for this space would have been great. I just wonder how you go from that to what we have now because its night and day. The old bait and switch maybe from one of Eddie's pals?

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Luca Brasi Hamlet

Luca Brasi

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I drove by this property and stopped in at the wine store. The wine store is very nice. There is also now a large auto parts store, a laundromat, a cellphone staore, a furniture store and a dollar store in addition to the grocery store that was there. Also, they have built a new building that rises up from the sunken parking lot to street level at Park. The liquor store owner said a Subway, a Dunkin Donuts and another restaurant were going in that space. While we all like to dream about what could be, this property is actually a 100% improvement over the boarded up storefronts that were there for more than a decade.

On another note, the street improvements made to Park Street right in front of Pope Commons look nice but are not very practical. The street has been narrowed CONSIDERABLY to the point of being dangerous. The first median traveling east on Park is hidden in the shadows of I-84 overhead and has been hit so many times, there are now bright orange traffic barrels placed at the beginning of each median to alert motorists... its not really a good look. The median itself which is less than a year old is already missing chunks of granite curb where cars have driven into them. One concrete built-in planter in the median has been smashed to pieces by someone who apparently drove into it judging by the tire marks.

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