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PROPOSED: AI Tech Center

ConnMan

By ConnMan
in Greater Hartford

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

Posted
Posted

A year later. I wonder if the "voice of reason" has gotten a grip on reality by now?

Yes, a year has passed and I still stand by my post.

The lot is not paved, the recession is still real and affecting Hartford, the owner is STILL committed, still owns his company, and you are still a negative nancy....

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

Posted
Posted

the developer was not on this board, just a dude who worked on the project. for all i know he might not even work there any more.

I will say this about Abdul Islam however, He is still around. Just a couple months ago he came to my office to meet with other business leaders and Malloy. So, he is still actively involved in greater hartford and I feel as though his intentions are still the same, its jut a matter of all the same issues this project has had since the begining.

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

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nope.

call me stubborn, but as stated before, its intended to be owner occupied, and that has not changed. the economic environment has been getting better, but its not exactly piping hot right now. so, until this place fully paves over and starts leasing the property to LAZ, I am going to still hope. I also think that until I hear anything about AI having financial trouble or the company struggling, I think this thing will still be alive.

I do however think they should add 8 stories of condos and call it a day

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Bill Mocarsky Hamlet

Bill Mocarsky

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There are three empty highrises downtown. Office vacancy downtown is the highest of any city in the northeast. No one will go near financing this. Word from the people at Constitution Plaza is that this project is dead in the water.

It doesn't mean they are right. Can't we just as easily say any potential downtown development is dead in the water?

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Luca Brasi Hamlet

Luca Brasi

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Bill - I do think its safe to say we wont see construction of any new office buildings downtown anytime soon. I hope Im wrong, but short of having signed leases for virtually the entire building, I don't think I am.

VoR - Yes, I am talking about the management office at Constitution Plaza. They worked with AI through the demolition process. Needless to say, they aren't thrilled with having a fenced off empty crater adjacent to their property.

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

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I have heard that this project has shifted gears and is now looking to build housing on the site. The problem is the huge cost of building from the ground up. Financing still wont be easy.

reeeelllllyyyyy???

I think this warrents an e-mail to mr islam.

I hope he still intends to bring his company downtown. I also think there is a milion reasons to include housing in anything built in Hartford circa 2012

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HartfordTycoon Town

HartfordTycoon

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Definitely a smart change if they are in fact moving the project in the direction of a residential tower. I agree that it would be nice if AI is still moving his offices there but the reality is that there is a much greater demand for residential than office space downtown right now and that is where the development focus should be. It will still be hard to get financing but it should at least be easier with the residential vacancy rate being so low right now and the momentum still seemingly strong for such projects.

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

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I actually didn't e-mail Islam, I reached out to the guy who posted in this thread, and if I get no reply Ill go t Islam.

I I think the best thing for this site would be for AI to move there and put in all the teaching space he wanted etc... keep the retail, keep the LEED Platinum etc...

But I would think they should do just 60K SF of office on the lower floors. Then I would rock out apartments for the next 10 or so floors, somewhere north f 100 units. lastly I would have the top 3-4 floors as condos.

keeping the top floor cafe would be cool, but maybe a penthouse?

anyways I think all the office should have patio or balcony space. make it really unique. if you have 20-40 condos to sell in a new building with river views and LEED platinum, Id think you could sell the first 10 or so right away and maybe even 20. there is a market, its just a small one. brand new LEED certified condos in Hartford would have a market, even if its mainly corporate housing for Travelers, UTC, United Health, etc...

I think they could get the financing because they have 40K SF leased allready, and if they could sell some condos, and lease a retail space or two, it would be pretty safe for the banks to lend.

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

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Its likely around the same height. the office was intended to be 200K sf If I recall, and that is roughly the squarefootage required to put in 200 small apartments.

360 State St in New haven was 700K sf and has 500 apartments, but also a huge garage .

so I think 12 floors is a reasonable guess. Residential floors tend to be shorter than commercial floors however so the building scale might change. Heck everything about it might change... but this is great news. Just more great stuff for Hartford!!!

at this point however I highly doubt everything we have heard about will come to pass, it would just be too good to be true :)

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The Voice of Reason Town

The Voice of Reason

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I am unsure why you are so certain that this WILL fail and excuses will be needed, but if it does fail the reasons are many. New construction is extremely ambitios for Hartford. I think it is more important that we have a guy that WANTS to buiild new in Hartford and wants to help the city. wether he succeeds or not is not the only thing that matters. Hell, the apartments at front street seem like a pipe dream as well. we clearly have over 1000 units in the pipeline and there really is a good chance that alot of them will not get built, but who cares? some will and downtown will improve as a result!

anyways...

http://www.courant.com/business/real-estate/hc-constitution-plaza-housing-20120412,0,6458230.story

The courant came out with an updated article today.

The $45-$50 million development could rise as high as 14 stories and would likely be L-shaped at the corner of State Street and Columbus Boulevard.

"I don't want to have a hole in the ground with a fence," Islam said. "I'm fully interested in building something that will benefit the city of Hartford. I don't want to sit on this hole or make it into parking."

the target is between 120 and 192 units, mostly studios and one-bedrooms.

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HartfordTycoon Town

HartfordTycoon

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Isn't this guy some kind of IT developer? What the frick does he know about building apartments??? Something's weird with all this.......

No, he's definitely not an IT Guy. His firm is an engineering, architecture, and construction firm. It's not really a stretch at all that he is moving into development in his own right. I really hope he can pull it off.

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drc72 Burg

drc72

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Posted

I am unsure why you are so certain that this WILL fail and excuses will be needed, but if it does fail the reasons are many. New construction is extremely ambitios for Hartford. I think it is more important that we have a guy that WANTS to buiild new in Hartford and wants to help the city. wether he succeeds or not is not the only thing that matters. Hell, the apartments at front street seem like a pipe dream as well. we clearly have over 1000 units in the pipeline and there really is a good chance that alot of them will not get built, but who cares? some will and downtown will improve as a result!

anyways...

http://www.courant.c...0,6458230.story

The courant came out with an updated article today.

The $45-$50 million development could rise as high as 14 stories and would likely be L-shaped at the corner of State Street and Columbus Boulevard.

"I don't want to have a hole in the ground with a fence," Islam said. "I'm fully interested in building something that will benefit the city of Hartford. I don't want to sit on this hole or make it into parking."

the target is between 120 and 192 units, mostly studios and one-bedrooms.

I hope your right! It's frustrating to see empty lots stay empty.

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Hartfordfan Whistle-Stop

Hartfordfan

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"I don't want to have a hole in the ground with a fence," Islam said. "I'm fully interested in building something that will benefit the city of Hartford. I don't want to sit on this hole or make it into parking."

I am glad to hear this from mr. islam because many ppl don't share the same view as him. he really seems to care about doing something good for the city.

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