PROPOSED: Betty Ruth and Milton B. Hollander Friendship Center

[The Voice of Reason]

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news18503.html

No, I am not drunk and having a flashback to 3 years ago...

Apparently the Hollanders also own this building and they wanted to donate it to the same people who did the last Holander building, so they could again renovate the building into housing....

really though, it may not be a unique idea, but how pleases are we today???

more housing for Hartford!!!!!

here is the info from the city

6 stories, 11562 SF on the first floor, 13,800 or so each additional floor

so, just a guess, but we are talking about 10,000 SF of retail

and about 70 apartments on the upper floors

likely some kind of mix with market rate and moderate income, and possibly for artists or something like that.

based on their track record, Id also assume a green roof, and a 100% chance of this happening.

The article also again mentioned wonderworks and their plans for the clarion. Kinda cool, opposite ends of the city with these two projects... an no one saw this one coming!!!

all I need now is someone to announce plans for 101-111 pearl

[HartfordTycoon]

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news18503.html

No, I am not drunk and having a flashback to 3 years ago...

Apparently the Hollanders also own this building and they wanted to donate it to the same people who did the last Holander building, so they could again renovate the building into housing....

really though, it may not be a unique idea, but how pleases are we today???

more housing for Hartford!!!!!

here is the info from the city

6 stories, 11562 SF on the first floor, 13,800 or so each additional floor

so, just a guess, but we are talking about 10,000 SF of retail

and about 70 apartments on the upper floors

likely some kind of mix with market rate and moderate income, and possibly for artists or something like that.

based on their track record, Id also assume a green roof, and a 100% chance of this happening.

The article also again mentioned wonderworks and their plans for the clarion. Kinda cool, opposite ends of the city with these two projects... an no one saw this one coming!!!

all I need now is someone to announce plans for 101-111 pearl

This is honestly amazingly good news. This building so obviously is under-utilized and in a great location. This corner really should come to life once both of these buildings are filled with residents. The street level retail should be pretty attractive once the housing comes along.

[The Voice of Reason]

This is honestly amazingly good news. This building so obviously is under-utilized and in a great location. This corner really should come to life once both of these buildings are filled with residents. The street level retail should be pretty attractive once the housing comes along.

Yeah, I have always thought that the worst thing about this building.... other than that it replaced an amazing historical gem (Anyone care to post a picture?)... is that this building interacts TERRIBLY with the street. I would hope that a renovation into residential would make the street interaction much more friendly, and make it approachable as a place to live and do business.

I can only suspect that between 410Asylum, 370 Asylum, Capitalview, The Hotel Bond, The Holiday inn Express, Union place and Real art ways, this little area will really start to come into its own.

My estimate puts the average population in this area at

213 hotel rooms (usually 60% filled according to the last anual report on hartford hotels) =125

425 apartments (usually 90%+ occupied) = call it 390

so on any given day,there are 515 or more units occupied within a block of 370 Asylum, and possibly as many as 638.

This could easily represent 1000+ people

I cant wait for this sewar project to finish up so these places can attract some retail tenants, and the area can show its true beauty... I mean it's park front!!!

[HartfordTycoon]

I cant wait for this sewaw project to finish up so these places can attract some retail tenants, and the area can show its true beauty... I mean it's park front!!!

Amen to that!

[beerbeer]

The good news is that Common Ground actually follows through on their plans. By Hartford standards they move at the speed of light.

[MichaelQReilly]

Yeah, I have always thought that the worst thing about this building.... other than that it replaced an amazing historical gem (Anyone care to post a picture?)...

Here it is:

What a piece of crap, thank god they tore it down. It's quite possibly the most beautiful building that has ever graced the city. It looked right out over the Park River and Bushnell Park.

Every single thing in the above picture is gone.

As to the news - outstanding. This group has been doing amazing things for the city. This moves us one step closer to critical mass downtown. Once that happens, we can then start thinking of expanding downtown outward to places like South Green and Capitol Ave.

[Woonsocketier]

Here it is:

What a piece of crap, thank god they tore it down. It's quite possibly the most beautiful building that has ever graced the city. It looked right out over the Park River and Bushnell Park.

Every single thing in the above picture is gone.

As to the news - outstanding. This group has been doing amazing things for the city. This moves us one step closer to critical mass downtown. Once that happens, we can then start thinking of expanding downtown outward to places like South Green and Capitol Ave.

Being from Rhode Island all that second picture makes me think of is how awesome it would be to use that river again downtown. Providence uncovered the rivers and now there are gondolas, waterfires, and thousands of people downtown on Fridays and Saturdays at night. Can Hartford duplicate that? Possibly. Would anything be better than having that river buried? In my amateur opinion, absolutely.

[HartfordTycoon]

This is just a slam dunk in my opinion. It is exactly what the doctor ordered for this part of Downtown and Downtown in general. Right now the mantra should be more housing, more housing, more housing. As long as it's being filled keep building it.

Hartford Courant

The Capitol Center office building near Bushnell Park in downtown Hartford — vacant for more than a decade — could be converted into 40, mixed-income apartments, now that the six-story building has been donated to the same non-profit redeveloping the Swift factory in the city's North End.

Northeast Neighborhood Partners Inc. is now drawing up plans for the building on the corner of Asylum and High streets that are expected to include commercial space on street-level. Construction on the apartments, a mix of one- and two-bedroom units, isn't expected to be well underway for at least two years.

"We are excited to have the chance to add more mixed-income housing to downtown," Rosanne Haggerty, the organization's founder, said Tuesday.

[The Voice of Reason]

40 seems low

the building is 75000 SF

so without the first floor, there is still 60,000+ SF

I suppose these are going to be fairly large units.

[The Voice of Reason]

Based on the article about smaller projects downtown this address, the corner of Asylum and High was refrenced as 65 units

 

 

[HartfordTycoon]

Can't wait to see this area come to life with all of the housing proposals now on the drawing board. This is definitely a cool part of downtown to live in. My brother lived at the first Hollander project for a while and I was pretty jealous, me having moved to the burbs with my young family.

[MichaelQReilly]

Can't wait to see this area come to life with all of the housing proposals now on the drawing board. This is definitely a cool part of downtown to live in. My brother lived at the first Hollander project for a while and I was pretty jealous, me having moved to the burbs with my young family.

 

Another big plus for this area is the Ford/Jewell Street reconfiguration that is in the works. Not only will there be a nice residential mass, but it will be a much better relationship with the park.

[The Voice of Reason]

not to mention that Asylum will be two way up to Main Street.

 

and the sidewalks are all being widened and such.  I think there are bike lanes along the park too. 

 

I gotta go back to that intermodal triangle PDF.  regardless, its very nice. for this part of town up through main St

 

 

 

I am more psyched that 201 Ann and Mayor Mikes building are gonna be residnetial now too.

those little buildings create charachter and variety in options.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I was wondering when this was going to bubble back up.

 

 

Seems that the time is now...

 

370 Asylum is on the CRDA agenda for the next session.

 

Im guessing this means they are close to finalizing financing and Id expect to see some work happening here within a year.

 

that would be pretty cool

[The Voice of Reason]

Finally some info here and a little progress.

 

 

http://touch.courant.com/#section/2225/article/p2p-83582893/

 

Looks like they are looking at 60 units

70% market rate

30% Affordable

 

that makes for 18 affordable units

 

I am sure they are doing simular to what they did next door and that was to make the units facing the park the market rate ones, and further to make the higher floors market rate in an effort to attract the hugher rents to support those lower rents..

 

The market-rate rents could range from about $1,200 a month for a studio or small, one-bedroom to $1,750 a month for a large, two-bedroom, according to the Capital Region Development Authority, which is considering a $3.6 million loan for the project.

Rents for "affordable" units could range from $400 to $1,600 a month, CRDA said.

[The Voice of Reason]

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20151026/NEWS01/151029929

 

looks like they have financing.  Not sure when this is supposed to start work.  or if other financing is needed