PROPOSED: Great Pond Village

[The Voice of Reason]

3500 residential units!

85,000 square feet of neighborhood retail

250,000 square feet of office and research and development space.

600+ acres

$750,000,000 price tag

http://www.hartfordb.../news15898.html

the timing on this seems perfect if you ask me. by 2012 the housing market should be in full swing, and this part of CT could actually use a village like retail center(85,000 SF is not an unrealistic ammount)

All the people on Day Hill Rd working would have a nice place near by to get food and do happy hour. I am actually quite supportive of this plan. it would also be a large development at the end of the griffin line ROW making that future expansion of commuter rail even more viable if it ever comes up again

[HartfordTycoon]

Wow, seems very promising. I've expected something like this to come along for this area for a while. It can definitely support it and it would radically transform that area which is already growing tremendously with the addition of the corporate campuses. If this is 95 percent residential then that means it would probably pave the way for further retail development in the area which is pretty non existent currently. I think this area needs a moderately sized lifestyle center type of development since there are not any really close options. Hopefully this will not cause an exodus of all of the tobacco farms in the area though. That is part of Windsor's heritage.

[The Voice of Reason]

Wow, seems very promising. I've expected something like this to come along for this area for a while. It can definitely support it and it would radically transform that area which is already growing tremendously with the addition of the corporate campuses. If this is 95 percent residential then that means it would probably pave the way for further retail development in the area which is pretty non existent currently. I think this area needs a moderately sized lifestyle center type of development since there are not any really close options. Hopefully this will not cause an exodus of all of the tobacco farms in the area though. That is part of Windsor's heritage.

this seems like it would include the lifestyle center in a way.

85,000 SF of neighborhood retail

to me that means no big box, and no stand alone, so think village center/lifestyle center in appearance.

and 85,000 would easily support a wide variety of small shops. if you think that your average storefront is <2000SF, this little village center could easily support 17 stores/resturants/banks at 5k

I would think that since they are looking to be denser that the current laws allow, there will be apartments above those stores, and likely townhomes/condos right next to them with single family homes and Mc Mansions in the development.

I hope it would include the pond in the actual village part. that would be a nice setting for a fake village

[HartfordTycoon]

This project is still moving along and the town's political leaders seem so far to be supportive of it. This project is huge. It's a transformational project. This along with the introduction of frequent rail service to Windsor will completely change the face of this town, and for the better IMO. Windsor can handle a lot more density than it currently has and is located perfectly to develop in a very similar fashion to Glastonbury. Hartford's northern suburbs can certain use more high end housing and I think this is a project that can deliver that and at the same time become on of suburban Hartford's first true transit villages.

Hartford Courant

WINDSOR — The town council on Wednesday received its first formal overview of a proposed redevelopment project that could change the face of Windsor in the next 20 years.

The Great Pond Village redevelopment project would be built on 750 acres off Day Hill Road and include 4,000 houses, condos and apartments for 7,800 residents as well as 850,000 square feet of civic, retail and office space. It would bring an estimated 2,400 jobs to town.

..........

"Do we think it will work? We'll find out," Winstanley said. "It's a unique project for this part of the country, but it works in Charlotte and it works in Virginia"

Following the presentation, Deputy Mayor Alan Simon reflected on the redevelopment of an area that was at the forefront of the onset of corporate corridors a half-century ago.

"It's an exciting idea. This project could actually change Windsor to the extent that creating a corporate area once did," he said.

[HartfordTycoon]

I was looking at the map of this area last night and the griffin line railway ends pretty much at the intersection of Blue Hills and Day Hill. Light rail or even another busway would directly link this area to the University of Hartford and Downtown. It would be beautiful one day to have this corridor connected with a more fully developed Day Hill Rd. area and a redeveloped and expanded University of Hartford area all connected to Downtown and the rest of the region via Union Station.

I have to be honest here, a busway doesn't seem like a terrible idea to me in this corridor as it would be able to get off on Day Hill Rd. and connect to all of the employers and future developments directly. I know I'll catch hell for saying this but a fully built out busway system going northwest, southwest, northeast and southeast from Hartford in addition to north-south rail connections all converging on Union Station would be a pretty significant transit upgrade for the region. They are studying a busway on the Griffin line as well as on the rail lines going to East Hartford and Manchester and on the HOV lanes of 84 E.

This is a render of the Great Pond development. This thing is absolutely massive.

Here is the project website.

greatpondinwindsor.com

[HartfordHope]

There is a town meeting on this tomorrow. Hopefully more will come out after that. Latest I read said once complete it will ad 7,800 people... thats an entire town.

[The Voice of Reason]

I have no problem with a busway on the Griffin line.

I would rather see it be a rail line some day, but in reality density is not there and a bus way suits day hill. IT DOES NOT SUIT THE I 84 Corridore to Waterbury.

We need rail from Waterbury and ideally rail to rockville

rail to middletown.... Meh, maybe, but to simsbury would be seemingly wasteful.

simsbury to Middletown would be again Meh..., but if it helped to encourage density, that it would potentially be a better long term plan. busway for the next 20 years, then, commuter rail...

yeah, this is truely a mega development, and it seems windsor is highly likely to see some major changes in the coming years...

there is also another mixed use development recently moved forward near the airport in Windsor locks.

EDIT** it should be said, that even though its a backwards way of doing it, at least a busway is a transportation ROW that later on can be "easily" converted back to rail or whatever to better serve a more densly developed area. so, maybe some day....

[MadVlad]

Why not just build some retail and leave the residential for phase 2... oh, wait, this isn't in Hartford...

[The Voice of Reason]

I like that they are putting the occice and hospitality(hotels across Day Hill.

Although, it would maybe be smart to include the hotel into the "downtown" of this development.

and based on the land use plans, there will be really just 1 street of retail /mixed use. and this street leads to and from great pond, so that should be quite nice. also there is some community space adjacent, so Im not sure if that would be like a fitness center or what, but its a fairly smart design. especially since ther is a parking garage adjacent to the retail street, so if there are no curb side spaces, there will be garage space.

[HartfordTycoon]

Why not just build some retail and leave the residential for phase 2... oh, wait, this isn't in Hartford...

That's funny. It really does suck that Hartford doesn't get any projects like this proposed unless they are government subsidized and even then the credit is very tight so like Front Street it can't be fully developed at once. Hopefully we will see that start to change soon.

[beash19]

[url=http://greatpondinwindsor.com/frames/planPlan04.html]

I like that they are putting the occice and hospitality(hotels across Day Hill.

Although, it would maybe be smart to include the hotel into the "downtown" of this development.

and based on the land use plans, there will be really just 1 street of retail /mixed use. and this street leads to and from great pond, so that should be quite nice. also there is some community space adjacent, so Im not sure if that would be like a fitness center or what, but its a fairly smart design. especially since ther is a parking garage adjacent to the retail street, so if there are no curb side spaces, there will be garage space.

I work over there, just around the corner and this is such an exciting thing to see. There really is next to nothing for people to do at lunch but walk around business parks. There are hardly any shops and you have to drive a few minutes to get to them. With this right there on Day Hill, the shops will be packed at lunch and after. Restaurants will have plenty of patrons since there is only one or two places to go for lunch in the area, nevermind happy hour. If I didnt just buy a house, I might have entertained the idea of living there. I love the integration of the nature preserve behind it and the river. THis is such a great plan. i hope it doesnt change much when it comes to fruition.

[MadVlad]

I work over there, just around the corner and this is such an exciting thing to see. There really is next to nothing for people to do at lunch but walk around business parks. There are hardly any shops and you have to drive a few minutes to get to them. With this right there on Day Hill, the shops will be packed at lunch and after. Restaurants will have plenty of patrons since there is only one or two places to go for lunch in the area, nevermind happy hour. If I didnt just buy a house, I might have entertained the idea of living there. I love the integration of the nature preserve behind it and the river. THis is such a great plan. i hope it doesnt change much when it comes to fruition.

Companies reap what they sow. They move to suburban business parks, they people angry because there is nothing to do but walk around suburban business parks...

[HartfordTycoon]

This is just such a massive project. It will be amazing to see this actually start to materialize. This is going to be a huge game changer for Windsor and hopefully success will bode well for future mega-developments in the region, like Downtown North, Rentschler Field, etc. I also hope is serves as a catalyst to get  real mass transit, such as the Griffin Line, some serious consideration.

 

 

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20140217/PRINTEDITION/302149981/1002